Coming up with activities for preschoolers at home is easy, but traveling with kids is another story. Keeping them entertained (without just putting a tablet in front of their faces) can seem impossible.
But if you have a trip planned in the near future, don’t worry! This list of ideas for traveling with children is a lifesaver. Look over it, gather materials for a few of your favorites, and hit the road prepared!
Engineer and I are in the middle of a FUN trip to see my sister and her family. This trip has already included a 24-hour sleeper train ride, and we’ll be taking another one when we head home. I’ve had traveling with kids on the mind, so I thought I’d share some great tips and articles I’ve read on the subject recently. Below are links to over 100 ideas, activities, and tips for being on the move with kiddos.
ACTIVITIES FOR BEFORE THE TRIP
It’s always fun to do some travel-related activities prior to taking a trip. Engineer and I especially love these two train ideas . . .
1. Angry Birds Space Letter and Word Crash with Thomas and Cranky from Play Trains is something Engineer and Snoopy do all the time! They call it “night trains”, and they love turning all of the lights off to get ready to play.
2. Train Rocks for Teaching Colors from Thrive 360 Living are something I had wanted to make for ages. This gave me a great excuse, although mine didn’t turn out as cute! 🙂 Thank goodness Engineer didn’t care about cuteness — he was more about making up stories and “driving” the train rocks around.
If you’re looking for more transportation-related ideas (cars, trucks, planes, etc.), feel free to check out my Transportation Pinterest board. I’ll be adding to it as I find more ideas!
HOW TO ENTERTAIN THE KIDDOS WHEN TRAVELING
Below are some fun ideas about what to bring when traveling with kids. These are ideas related to various modes of transportation.
1. 37 Fun Things to Take Along When Traveling with Kids {Hobo Mama}
2. Travel Art Bag {Art Bar}
3. DIY LEGO Travel Box {Finley and Oliver}
4. Magnetic Puzzles {My Kind of Makeover}
5. Road Trip Pillow Cases {Amazing Mae}
6. Summer Road Trip #1: Car Snacks {Thrive}
7. Frugal Ways to Occupy Kids While Traveling {Nothing if Not Intentional guest post at Money Saving Mom}
8. Car Pulley System {Kids Activities Blog}
9. Number Recognition Car Game {Mama Pea Pod}
10. 50 Ways to Keep Your Toddler or Preschooler Busy on a Plane {Playing with Words 365}
GREAT TIPS FOR TRAVELING WITH KIDS
There are so many wonderful travel tips out there. Some of my favorites are listed below.
1. Tips for Flying with Baby {Nothing if Not Intentional — seriously, though, she has a TON of travel-related tips!}
2. Traveling with Kids: 10 Tips for a Smooth Vacation {Defrump Me}
3. 5 Tips for Traveling with Kids by Car {Fireflies & Mud Pies for Inner Child Learning}
4. Tips for Traveling with Kids {All Done Monkey}
5. Family Travel on a Budget {Local Fun for Kids}
I have more tips over on my Traveling with Kids Pinterest board. What’s your number one tip for traveling with the kiddos? Leave your ideas in the comments below! I’d love to hear them. 🙂
Shared at Mom’s Library, Share it Saturday, The Sunday Showcase, Parenting Pin It Party, Travel Tuesday, It’s Playtime, Discover and Explore
Products to Travel with
Traveling with children is so much fun! The change in the children’s typical routine and environment is a welcome change, even if you don’t plan to travel far. And there are a ton of things to learn and see anywhere you go.
But along with all of the excitement and fun comes the stress of keeping the children occupied while on the road, during downtime, or in the hotel. So, with that in mind, I’ve created a list of some things you can bring along to keep the stress at bay and keep preschool-aged children occupied.
Check out my product suggestions below. I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
- Magnetic travel toys
- Storybooks
- Drawing boards
- Bubbles
- Preschool card games
- Preschool board games
- Simple craft kits
- Scavenger hunt games
- Seek-and-find books
- Toy vehicles
- Small action figures or dolls
This list really just skims the surface of things to keep preschoolers occupied in meaningful play while traveling. Just take note of your child’s interests and then try to find a way to make that portable, while keeping in mind where and when your child will be using the items.
Done-for-You Preschool Resources
Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week while balancing other teaching responsibilities and a personal life can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!
Speaking of traveling, Preschool Teacher 101 has several lesson plans about different places in the world. Click on the images below to learn more about each resource.
Join The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 today for exclusive access to our content. We have a variety of membership options to suit your needs.
What a great roundup! Thanks for including our post!
Thanks so much Leanna! I really enjoyed your post and just had to share!!
I saw this pop up on pinterest, and I thought to myself, “A new travel post!? I love travel posts! I have to check it out!” And then I see it’s from Fun-A-Day, which makes it even better. 🙂 GREAT round-up! Thanks for including my blog!! 🙂
You’re so sweet, Rachael! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post, and you know how much I LOVE all of your travel posts. 🙂
did you see this one. it can be adapted for car/train/plane http://blog.gummylump.com/2013/05/off-we-go-traveling-craft-for-kids.html
Thanks for sharing that, Melinda! I added it to my pinterest board just now, after reading it. What a fun idea! Thanks for stopping by, too!
These are great resources, thanks! I just got back from my first flight alone, ever, with my kids who are 13 and 7. I thought it would be more challenging than it was but they kept themselves occupied with the iPad (13-year-old), iPad Mini, and coloring books (7-year-old) and My Little Ponies. Summer travelling whether by car, train, or plane are so much easier when you’re prepared!
Oh yes, I have to agree Alicia! Preparation and age-appropriate expectations are key when traveling with the kiddos. Our trip is going really well thus far, and Engineer is excited about another train ride. Thanks for stopping by!
Awesome round-up! I think you covered it all and then some :-). Thanks so much for including my train rocks. They are very popular with my son. We take them with us every time we go out to eat.
Thanks Sam! 🙂 I tried to cover everything I was thinking about, so I hope it gave others some good ideas. We LOVE your train rocks at my house! 🙂
If you haven’t already, please link up with the Monday Kid Corner at http://thejennyevolution.com/2013/06/16/monday-kid-corner-roundup-no-23/.
See you there! Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
Great Collection! Featuring this on Mom’s Library this week!
Thank you so much for the feature, Ashley! I LOVE Mom’s Library. There are always such great resources to check out.
Oh I love the car seat one! And the rest are very good too!
Thank you for linking with the #pinitparty and I hope you coming back next week
http://pinterest.com/romanianmum/
Thanks so much, Otilia! I will definitely be back next week. 🙂
Great tips! Thank you for coming to link up to Travel Tuesday!
Thanks so much, Kerrie. Reading all of the above posts helped get me in the right mindset! I enjoyed checking out Travel Tuesday! 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing my post! 🙂 This is a great round-up, and I’ll check out the other articles before our vacation this year.
I’m so glad I was able to include your post about fun things to bring when traveling with the kiddos! I know it was a great read for me prior to a trip with Engineer. 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by, Lauren!!
Great round-up! I shared this on Facebook as part of the KBN shout out.
Thanks, Anna! I really appreciate the share!!
Not sure if this is a “tip” or not but it really helped me travel alone with a 1.5 year old and a 3 year old. Well, two things. First, I explained the process to them both about 10 times before we got to the airport. Even at such a young age, they understood that I was going to be taking their shoes off (thankfully, you don’t have to do that anymore) and that EVERYTHING had to go through the x-ray machine. The second thing I did was locate the nearest “Play Area” which at one point ended up being a broken people-mover right in front of our gate. Yes, I got some dirty looks from parents with kids sitting quietly in their seats waiting for the plane while mine ran up and down and back and forth on that thing but…well, my kids fell asleep an hour into the flight, right about when all the other well-behaved children were getting cranky and grumpy and their patience had worn too thing to sit still and they were fighting with each other and climbing on the seats and screaming.
Thank you for leaving a tip here!! I completely agree — setting the stage for the traveling experience is SO important! Otherwise, how are they to know what to expect?? 🙂
So many great tips and links! These will be great on our cross country vacation next week! Thank you so much!
P.S. The link for the DIY Lego box said it could not be found!
Thanks for the heads up, Tabbi! I’ll go check on that shortly and see if I can track it down. I hope you had a blast on your cross country vacation. What were some of the highlights of the trip?
I see a lot of tips for kiddies, which is great! I have one for teens too. Put on a great fiction audiobook on longer car trips and entertain actually the parents too. Best are the multi cast audios with the sound effects that are like “movies for the mind.” These are the best to get even reluctant readers engaged. There are a few great ones.
Love, love, love that suggestion! Thank you! 🙂