Travel Tip: Entertaining the kiddies

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rocco checking out our ride

Tuesday we headed up to New Jersey from Miami for our Thanksgiving holiday with my husband’s side of the family. The trip went pretty smoothly, with our little Rocco, though it was 9 hours door to door. That would be thanks to our leaving early to avoid any frantic rushing to the flight, our slightly delayed flight, and the hour and a half rainy, bumper-to-bumper drive home. A few things got us through it happily without noticing the time:

1. Flying during our toddler’s nap time: We always try to plan flights this way. It may mean a few minutes of crankiness before he falls asleep, but once he’s out we have at least 45 minutes to ourselves and eveyone’s a lot happier afterwards!

Interactive Alphabet App by pi'ikea street

2. The iPad: At home, we try and limit screen time each day but when traveling, Rocco gets all he wants. We make sure to load up on fun educational apps and a couple of just plain entertaining things like his latest obsession, Disney’s Cars movie. Some of our favorite apps: Interactive Alphabet by pi’ikea street, TallyTots! and AlphaTots by Spinlight Studio, and Elmo loves ABCs by Sesame Street.

Kumon Let's Color! Book

3. Kumon coloring books: I love these books because they’re about mad libs size so easily fit in a carry-on pocket. Plus, when we have to turn off the iPad during take-off and landing, it’s the perfect activity with a few crayons I’ve thrown in the bag from home. My suggestion, rip out a few pages at a time or the book will be completely colored in less than 5 minutes.

4. Table Toppers: I always have these disposable plastic placemats on hand for restaurants, especially since I’ve been described as a bit of a germaphobe. But, I fell further in love with them this trip when it hit me to use one on the nasty seat back tray. Previously, I’ve used about half a package of wipes in an attempt to sanitize it. As soon as you board, stick it on the tray for the kiddies to use all flight. Rocco ate his chicken nuggets, french fries, and dip (a.k.a. ketchup) on it and then we just wiped it down for him to play on the rest of the flight. Why didn’t I think of this before?

Table Toppers

So, to sum it up, this week’s travel tip is for traveling with kids: schedule transportation around nap time & bring an iPad (or iPhone, tablet, or DVD player), Kumon coloring book, and table toppers! And if you arrive at the airport WAY too early, find the best airport shop to waste your extra time in. We happened upon a new shop, actually it was a mega-shop, called The Shoppes at Ocean Drive in Terminal D at MIA. It is, hands down, the best airport shop I’ve ever been in. Stay tuned, more to come on this dream airport store next week.

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