Traveling with kids: Our favorite entertainment
We just booked tickets to Thailand for this spring! Aron and I were there ten years ago on our honeymoon, and we’d always said we’d like to go back for our tenth anniversary. Nothing like the momentum of nostalgia and a romantic promise to make 21 hours of travel time with two kids seem doable!
But let me assure you: no matter how often you travel with kids, there is always a “what are we thinking?!”-moment when any long-haul flight confirmation pops up on the screen. If this is something you’re facing soon, I thought I’d share some of our favorite distractions for passing the time in the air (in the hopes, of course, that you’ll share in kind in the comments).
Snacks
We definitely count these as necessary distractions. The best are things are dry, quiet, consumed slowly, and require minimal help. Finger foods (think grapes, pretzels, raisins, banana chips, dry cereal, baked veggie chips, dried apricots, etcetera) can be counted, stacked, arranged, and slowly doled out (or placed in a snack cup) to pass the time. Lollipops are a good choice for a special treat because they encourage quiet (while they see how long they can make it last without biting it), and they can help with things like clearing ears and queasy tummies.
Cheerios are an all-time favorite. I still make use of them for all kinds of activities that go way beyond snacking.
Tip: bring along no-spill thermoses to fill with milk or water in the terminal (these are my tried-and-true favorite—though be careful when opening in the air).
Screens
This one’s obvious. With Hudson, at age 5, we could probably pass him the iPad and he’d be content to play games and watch shows almost the entire flight—if we’d let him. We generally try to delay the hand-off as long as possible, but most screen-time rules go out the window on travel days. For shows, movies, and games, I usually check Common Sense Media for suggestions and then load up some fresh content—for on and off the plane—before we travel. It was there that we discovered the Toca Boca Apps which are all intended to be really open-ended for kids. The first big hit was Toca Nature, which lets you create biomes and care for the animals without rules or goals. And a lot of the apps have that sort of creative bent.
They also have a new addition, Toca TV, a video-streaming service with videos from around the web that is going to be a great addition for travel off the plane—for times when you have a WiFi or data connection. The content is a mix of original Toca Boca and popular kids’ YouTube, best for kids ages 5-9. But there’s never any third-party advertising, sponsored product placement, or pre-roll ads and everything is prescreened to be age-appropriate. The kids can also use the app to make their own videos and play with animated filters and such. We love Toca Boca, so I’ve actually partnered with them to spread the word about Toca TV. If you’d like to try it out, there’s a code below to get your first month free when you sign up.
