Airplane Busy Bag for Kids

We are getting close to the kids’ first ever airplane experience! I am excited but also super nervous they’ll behave like you may expect 2 and 4 year old boys to behave…yikes.

I have spent a few weeks researching and compiling some items for a nice quiet busy bag for each of them.

Honestly I’ve been meaning to do this a while for a church bag since the Sundays we actually make it to church are not too pretty…behavior wise. So these bags will hopefully have more use in them after our trip!

We haven’t even used these yet so I plan to come back and update how each toy/activity went over!

I will tell you I have it all already packed in a bag and the kids have no idea what’s in there. Anticipation for new toys and the novelty of something brand new are things I want to fully use to my advantage once on the plane.

I’m also not planning to just hand over the bags all full of goodies and let them have at it because the new will wear off faster. The boys already know they can play with one fun new item and then check it back in with me to swap it out for another.

Otherwise Tom would likely just dump his all out in the aisle and it would be smashed by a beverage cart 8 minutes into plane ride one of four.

Like I said…I’m a little nervous!

So here is what I’m crossing my fingers will work as good quiet fun for young kids on a plane:

Notepad and pencils

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. A brand spanking new mini notepad from the dollar store is a solid option for your busy bag. And instead of including a package of crayons to be dropped or a pen or marker to end up all over airplane seats, I’m going with an old fashioned sharpened pencil (okay two pencils each). Sam likes writing tickets or notes or drawing and Tom like to do whatever Sam does.

Threading activities

I bought two options on Amazon and was impressed by great reviews for both. It seems other small kids enjoy these kinds of toys so I’m really hoping my boys do too! For Tom I got this adorable apple and worm option that was more suited to his age. And for Sam I got these dinosaurs that will require a little more skill and dexterity. I fully anticipate some mild fighting over not having the exact same thing but maybe they’ll take turns and I’ll get even more entertainment time out of each one!

Water coloring books

These Melissa & Doug Water Wow books come at a great price and with amazing reviews. I always like Melissa and Doug Products so I have high hopes for these! I love how they dry and become reusable! Each kid has two books in their bag and if they don’t play with them I am planning on it…

Sticker activities

There are a ton of choices out there for stickers and you can get thousands of them for cheap at dollar stores. I did spend a little more to go with these reusable and awesome looking sticker books from Melissa & Doug . Reviews said the stickers really can be peeled off and stuck on again around 12 times! Sam got one on all kinds of professions and Tom got one on farm animals because farm animals are life (for Tom).

Suckers

I am not above bribing the kids with suckers. Cheap dum-dums are in constant demand at our house so I have thrown in a few for each kid and hope to use them to calm any fits. I’m a firm believer in picking your battles in the right places and normally I would work hard to correct any fits or meltdowns….but not on a plane. I will probably cave in to any and all sucker demands to make sure we have smooth sailing….flying.

I’ll come back to this post in about 2 weeks to let you know our personal reviews on each airplane busy bag item. Wish us luck!