11 Ideas for Your Toddler & Preschooler’s Summer Travel Bag

Are you traveling this summer?  Going on a long flight or road trip with little kids and wondering how on Earth you’re going to keep them busy for hours on end, through bad weather, layovers, and God forbid, delayed flights?  Well, since we’ve already taken a family vacation this year, I might be able to help.  Because trust me, when I started packing our bags, I had no idea where to start, but I knew that this was the year that the kids were going to have to start carrying some of their own stuff.  And lucky for me, they loved the idea and helped me pack them full of things that they would want to play with on the plane.  The travel bags even kept the girls occupied through a 4.5 hour delay on top of a 3 hour flight home!

Our bags included:

1)  Coloring Books & Crayons – Okay, this is obvious.  They are a travel staple.  The only thing that I would add to this obvious recommendation would be to remove the crayons from a toddlers backpack and carry them in the diaper bag (if you’re bringing one).  My preschooler can be trusted with crayons, my toddler cannot.

2)  Books – You know those books that your kids love, but take forever to read at night so you tend to steer away from them when it comes to storytime?  This is the time to break those books out!  You can easily kill 20-30 minutes reading those beloved stories, but try to stay clear of hardbacked books because they get heavy quick!

3)  Play-Doh – Yes, I know, you probably think I’m crazy right about now, but this was probably my best decision.  Nothing makes my kids quieter than Play-Doh or the mere threat of their Play-Doh being taken away.  I bought a value pack of small Play-Doh cans and threw one in each of the girls backpacks (each of the girls got a different color).  They loved it!  And it isn’t a ton of Play-Doh, so it’s manageable and just enough to sculpt into something small or roll out to make impressions in.  But do yourself a favor and take the cap from them…that thing seemed to fall on the ground constantly.

4)  Snacks – Not just any snacks though, these should be snacks that your kid goes wild for (in our case that’s fruit snacks), because a good snack can really kill some time.  Just make sure that you pack a 2-3 in their bag and a few extra for later in the trip in your bag/the diaper bag.  Remember, no juice boxes if you’re flying.

5)  Memory Game – We own tons and tons of memory card games, so for this trip I decided to take a few of the card matches out and travel with them.  I brought 6 matches (for a total of 12 cards) and put them in a ziplock bag.  Greenleigh and I played this game on the tray table and despite only having a few cards to match she really enjoyed it and we played the game several times.  For an older child, you could always substitute a card game like Old Maid or Go Fish.

6)  Favorite Lovey & Blanket – Anytime these things leave my house I get nervous for fear that we’ll lose them, but there was no way we were going to be able to travel without them, so I decided to include them in their travel bags.  Good thing too, because our flights were often cold and the blanket was taken out pretty quickly.  They also helped when they wanted to go to sleep, which in my experience was normally about 5 minutes before we landed.

7)  Construction Paper & Stickers – My girls love stickers, so I decided to pack a few that they received for their birthday along with some of my old scrapbook paper that I cut down to size.  Worked like a charm and kept them happy for quite a while, along with the crayons.  If you don’t have extra stickers at home, you can always pick some up at the dollar store or maybe even use old address labels.

8 )  Figurines – Ours were princesses, but I’m guessing these could easily be substituted out for cars in case you have boys.  I always try to carry 3 for each girl – one more than than the number of hands they have.  That way there are extras to share if they make a friend in the airport.

9)  Doll & Brush – Greenleigh’s new obsession is playing with dolls and their hair, so I brought a Barbie and brush with us (one for each of the girls).  Originally I brought a bigger doll, but it ended up being too heavy, so it was later substituted for a Barbie doll.

10)  LeapPad – At the last minute, I decided to throw Greenleigh’s LeapPad into her backpack.  It didn’t get a ton of use because it’s loud and we don’t have headphones for it, but it did come in handy here or there.  I don’t know if I’d bring it again though.

11)  iPad – No, I did not let either of my children actually carry this in their backpack, but I felt that leaving it out would be dishonest.  Fact is, the iPad was a great way to keep them happy when everything above stopped working.  Although they liked to watch their favorite shows, I think interactive game/story apps were the best.  Mickey Road Rally (free, although currently removed from iTunes) and Disney Princess Story Theater ($2.99) topped our list.

In my diaper bag – not pictured – I carried Pull Ups, wipes, extra snacks, Hazeline’s sippy cup, and the iPad.  I also carried a set of clothes for each girl that could double as pajamas in the event our luggage didn’t make it to our destination (pants and a short sleeved shirt), which thankfully it did.

Having them them carry their own entertainment was great and we’ll definitely be doing it again.  Just make sure that when your packing you take into consideration the weight of their bag.  This is so important.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it until Greenleigh was laying on her back like a turtle outside the Fort Lauderdale airport, flailing her arms and legs because the weight of the bag had not only knocked her over, but wouldn’t allow her to get up.  Needless to say, I ended up carrying her bag through the airport on that particular day, but we made the necessary adjustments on our return flight and all went smoothly.

What do you normally pack in your child’s travel bag?