Emergency Flight Plan

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DO LESS. LIVE MORE.

In a few weeks, my family and I will be traveling on an airplane. While I'm excited about stepping away from work and laundry and the daily chores at home, I am definitely nervous about the flight with two toddlers. My daughter is a fantastic traveler; as I told someone today, "I could go to India with her." My son, on the other hand, could enrage a Zen monk in a 45-minute car ride. At two years old, he just doesn't understand the concept of "please remain seated."

Busy on Board

As such, I've started putting together a homemade "Busy Book" with activities I hope will keep them occupied. 

In addition, I've invested in some kids' headphones and we're charging up the tablet. Our kids don't watch much "TV" and perhaps as a result, they're captivated by it--but only for a short time...and then they get bored and restless. I'm OK with this trade-off, as I'd rather my kids be active, but it does mean that we can only count on a digital vacation for a small chunk of the flight.

Items in the Busy Book

1. Lacing and bow-tying practice. Part 1 consists of simple strings with tape wrapped around the ends [upper left corner]. This will pair with Cheerios, dried fruit, etc. The snacks can be strung to make necklaces and then, when the activity gets dull, eaten as a snack. Part 2 are simple pieces of cardboard that I've punched two holes in, threaded with ribbon, and taped down to a piece of paper. My daughter is not at the shoe tying phase yet, so this one will be a stretch for her, but she can use the ribbons to practice tying bows. Extra supplies needed: dried fruit, Cheerios, etc.

2. Counting and sticker application. I made one of these for my two-year-old and one for my four-year-old. They'll practice going through their numbers, and counting, but they also get to apply fun stickers. Extra supplies needed: several pages of small stickers.

3. Scribble drawings. As a kid, I had the most awesome babysitter. She was only about five years older than myself, but she taught me probably as much as any teacher I've ever had. (She's grown up to be a professor and an architect--not surprising since she's probably the most artistic person I've ever met). She introduced me to scribble drawings. Using a dark crayon or marker, you make scribbles as shown in the image above. Then you use crayons or colored pencils to color in each of the sections. It's like an abstract coloring book page that takes one second to create. Extra supplies needed: box of crayons or colored pencils.

4. Shapes Puzzle. This activity took the longest to create by far. It involved cutting images out of magazines and then covering them with contact paper and then cutting them out again. I then traced them to create the outlines shown in the image. (For a younger child, simpler shapes would work better. I've also set aside some images to practice naming objects with my younger child.) As shown above, this makes a sort of puzzle, where the child tries to match the image with the outlined shape. We'll see if my time investment was worth it! Extra supplies needed: envelope or something to store "puzzle pieces" in.

5. Shapes Matching. This is an activity that works on pronunciation and spelling of words, as well as shape recognition. For the less complicated version (below), I'm using it as an opportunity to practice learning shapes and colors. Extra supplies needed: pencil, pen or crayon.

6. Spelling. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but each of the black lines is actually a slit in the paper. Off to the side I have several different strips with letters. These strips slide through the slits to make different words. (For example, shown here: pin, win, tin, etc.) My little girl is just starting to learn how to sound out words, so I hope she'll enjoy this activity.

Tips for Flying 

Other great tips for flying with kids that I've received (and tested) over the years include:

• Always bring an extra change of clothes for each child. This includes diapers, wipes and/or underpants. In fact...
• Bring an extra extra set of undies or diapers. Murphy's Law states that they will hold their double blowout until they're sitting on your lap on a airplane.
• Also, double wrap. No harm in wearing a cloth swim diaper over that first diaper. See "double blowout" above. Because who wants to change a diaper in a tiny airplane bathroom or a tiny airplane seat?
• Try to plan the flight to coincide with meal or nap times. This provides two engaging and fairly time-consuming activities during flight time.
• Bring a string. Inevitably toys, cups, "stuffies" and so on will get dropped and, on an airplane, this frequently means they will also roll under your seat (or the one in front) and far out of reach. We've made a habit of tying things we're using to a string or ribbon so that when they're dropped they're also easily retrieved.
• Bring earplugs. I gave my daughter earplugs the first time we flew with her because I know she's pretty sensitive to loud sounds and I was afraid the noise of the plane taking off and landing would freak her out. I also hoped that the earplugs might stave off the kind of terrible earaches I used to get during take-off and landing when I was a child. Whether this actually worked or it was merely placebo effect, earplugs seemed to really help. And if your kid doesn't need them, you can wear them yourself when the going gets rough...or hand them to your miserable seat-mate.
• Bring the birth certificates. I once stood by as a (clearly exhausted) mom argued with a airline official at the terminal regarding whether her (obviously) infant son would be allowed to fly. Because he was a baby, she had not bought a ticket for him. But because she didn't have a birth certificate to show that he was less than two years old, the airline wouldn't let them fly.
• As a wise mom said to me just this morning: Relax. If you're stressed, kids can feel it and they get stressed too. 

Do you have tips for traveling with small children? Share them in the Comments section!

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