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Posted by: home_school Original: 9/6/2004 4:25 AM Comments: 5 eProps: 10 Read Comments Post a Comment Back to Your Xanga Site

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2 eProps from: tifi julianabanana TKinOKC Kelios elizajane202

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Monday, September 06, 2004

Does anyone have any good/fun travel ideas for a 3.5-year-old who will be stuck on an airplane for 8 hours? We've got the mini Magna Doodle, coloring books, paper to write/draw on, crayons, a small set of Legos, story books and snacks. Any other suggestions? I'm not really sure what else we could do that's travel-sized that'll occupy our time and minds (especially Tristan's! I could read a book the entire time if I were "allowed" to). Keep in mind that he's got expressive language delays, which means a bit of a cognitive delay, so we can't do anything too advanced, like a Q&A session. He knows numbers up to at least 30 (counting and identifying), knows all your basic colors, knows his alphabet (reciting and identifying), so I could make up some kind of games using those things. Maybe asking him to count all the red shirts in his sight or something. He knows basic shapes as well. We don't have a Game Boy, so that's out. I'm too cheap to buy one and I don't really want him getting into them right now anyway. And it'll take up more space than I'm willing to give. I'm hoping for something interactive for those times when his solitary play grows tiring to him. Things to distract him with to prevent severe boredom. I can't predict whether or not he'll sleep or for what length of time, so I am trying to gather ideas for any scenario. The last time we flew anywhere, it was to Germany and that took a whopping hour lol. I think we just read him books or something, I don't even remember now, but he had a good time. Before that, he was 6 months old when we flew here and he required little entertainment. This is a new experience for me and I need to be as prepared as possible.

I never did check the library for books on airplanes. Maybe I'll do that this week. Too bad we couldn't take it with us for the plane ride. I think he's like me in that he is a visual learner -- he needs to see it to comprehend what he's being taught. Reading a book before we leave might stick in his mind, but then again it may mean nothing once we close it and go on our way. Couldn't hurt to get one just for fun, anyway.

Posted 9/6/2004 4:25 AM - 5 comments

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OK, what I like to do is buy small treats that can be wrapped up. I let them open their "present" on the plane. Does he sleep on flights at all? My two usually sleep for the first hour or so, so that knocks out the need to keep them constantly occupied.

Posted 9/6/2004 12:56 PM by tifi

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Hi Reesie - what about puzzles? You could make some on the computer... print out pictures of your family (even the people you're going to visit!) and cut them out in puzzle shapes. You could probably even glue them on cardboard if you wanted them to "fit" together better. How much longer till you leave?

Posted 9/6/2004 1:49 PM by julianabanana

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The present idea is great. We did that once. Magnet games were a hit as well -- we made up our own. Print out a sheet from your computer OR cut and paste pics from a magazine with different pictures on it and use a magnet to mark each item seen. You'll need something magnetic to put the sheet on to. But we didn't glue it down or anything and changed the sheets out. You could do this with the puzzle idea too. We also looked in the magazines they have on planes and made up stories about some of the pictures. Sang songs about flying (and anything else we could think of). Played "I Spy". Counted how many rows to the exit signs. Counted how many windows. Brought LOTS of varied snacks -- even the stuff I don't normally allow. Did a puppet show with gummy bears. HTH. If I think of the other things we did, I'll let you know.

Good luck on your trip!!

Posted 9/6/2004 3:38 PM by TKinOKC

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I bought Go Fish cards at the Bookmark - but they were alphabet - Uppercase and Lowercase - Garrett liked matching the letters. They had pictures on them (like both Fs had frogs).

You could also play Memory - a purchased one or use pictures that you print out yourself - maybe even pics of people you're going to see. Start off with two pairs, move up from there if he likes it.

I think wrapping the toys is a great idea, too.

Posted 9/7/2004 2:24 AM by Kelios

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We did the present idea too, just we had him open them before we left so he was excited about going. Sounds like you have everything I had, he carried on his own little backpack full of stuff. On the planes they normally have a t.v. and we were lucky enough to get the cartoon channel on one flight. :)

Posted 9/7/2004 10:57 AM by elizajane202 - reply

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