Complete Preschool Carry-on Packing List

(Under Construction!)

 

Our flight from Seattle to Germany was was long, boring, miserable, and eventful. Trying to entertain a preschooler on a transatlantic flight can be very tricky!

With about eleven hours of flying time, I wanted to make sure my son had enough stuff to keep him occupied. But is there ever really enough for a bored, tired, anxious 3 year old to do when he has been up for 18 hours? Oh, the misery of being cooped up with a preschooler who won’t sleep, use the airplane bathroom, or stay quiet while everyone else is trying to sleep on the flight. Since my husband was already in Germany, my amazing Dad offered to accompany my son and me on the trip over.

We did have about 5 hours of peaceful bliss while he was enjoying the contents of what I packed for him, and before he was just too tired and restless. So, let me share what went well, and I’ll just pretend the rest of it never happened  + 2 thumbs up+

Packing the Carryon

Ok, first I went out and bought about $50 worth of new toys and snacks. Yes, I know, shame on me, but if you had flown the flights I have, you would just nod along and say: Yes, good, $50 worth of new toys and snacks.

Then I took them all out of the packages (huge waste of space when packing a carryon) and wrapped them up to be opened on the plane. The brown paper wrapping was used for candy so I could let him open those ones after snacks throughout the flight.

Here’s a close up of some of the toys. I tried to get things that could be enjoyed quietly or take awhile to put together so the entertainment value would last.

My dad flies often and is accustomed to having all the perks and none of the lines. Sorry about the 40 minute wait for security, Dad. He kept turning around and saying: This is ridiculous! My son kept trying to escape by low crawling on the dirty airport tile. But he did get to write his name scribble on a luggage tag, which he was really proud of.

The Easy Hours

The first hour of the flight was spent enjoying the new games on his new LeapPad. (He opened it the night before so he could get the hang of how to play the games.)

And he enjoyed showing his bunny Lemmiwinks around our row.

Of course a 3 (and a half) year old can’t put an 18 piece transformer together all by himself, so my dad had to lend a hand. It was a good quiet activity and I’m glad we saved most of them for when the lights were dimmed so that everyone (but us) could get some sleep.

He loved opening up Marshall and his fire truck, and then getting to watch the show on the kindle – PAWS Patrol for the win!

The International Layover

We had a really short layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. After briefly falling asleep on the descent, he woke up SCREAMING bloody murder for the entire 20 minutes of landing. I think it was a perfect storm of having refused to use the bathroom for 8 hours, being midnight in the time zone we had been in, and just wanting to get the hell out of his seat belt. As we entered the airport in a dreamlike stupor, he threw up his hands, tears in his eyes and said: This isn’t Germany! followed by a pitiful sob. I got an empathetic laugh from a passerby, which gave me just enough gusto to carry the little screamer through customs and onto the next plane.

At that point I took him to the bathroom and insisted that he use it. While he screamed, I’m sure everyone on the plane thought I was beating him, but eventually he went, and the plane took off.

There was a beautiful sunrise, and even though none of us had really slept, it was exciting that we were almost in Germany!

He was out cold for the last hour of the short(er) flight. Actually we were the last people to walk down the stairs of the plane and board the bus to the terminal. He slept all the way to baggage claim. Why couldn’t he sleep like that on the flight?!

But as miserable as those few dark hours were, we made it to Germany and I will never have to fly with a 3 year old for eleven hours ever again.  +fingers crossed+

 

Have you ever entertained a preschooler on a transatlantic flight? 

 

Please note: there are affiliate links in this post, which means if you purchase an item from my link I will get a (very) small percentage of the purchase. Full disclosure statement can be found here. Thank you!

Melissa & Doug Felt Friends Stickers: These are so fun to make!

Kindle Fire for Kids: A tablet of some kind is basically a must for long flights with young kids. Bonus points for this kid-proof case and easy return/exchange policy for when your kid drops it on the tarmac.

Washi tape: Totally removable tape that you can put all over the plane walls, windows, and tray table. Win!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse figurines: Any small toys that can stand easily on the tray table will do. I recommend getting these for cheap at a thrift store, but if you’re in a pinch, click on the link and grab these ones!

Check out this awesome kids tray! It’s already clean and will keep toys and snacks contained.

A Successful Flight (Minus the Swearing)

I spent a lot of time preparing for our flight from Oahu to Phoenix. My backpack was full of tricks and snacks for entertaining my son. When our row was called to board at the airport, my husband was standing near the line and motioned for us to come over. My son was struggling to get his backpack on and mumbled, “Dammit.” My husband called from about 15 feet away, “What?” And my son hollers back “DAMMIT!” The lady sitting next to me gave me a look with her eyebrows raised. So we were off to a good start.

He had fun perusing the safety info and helping Daddy get his seat belt on. We bought some new t.v. shows he’s never seen on the Kindle Fire and rented the movie Up. The movie was a big fail – he just didn’t have the attention span for a movie, but he spent about 2 hours browsing the new t.v. shows, so that was a win.

I tried something new on this flight. I always worry that we are bothering the people in front of us when my son is rough opening and shutting his tray and when he “accidentally” kicks the seat in front of him. So when we first sat down in our seats I got the attention of the man sitting in front of my son. “Sir? Hello this is my son behind you and he’s going to try really hard not to touch your seat, but if he does feel free to turn around and tell him – I don’t like that!” The two ladies sitting with him laughed and he seemed pretty good-natured about it. Plus I didn’t have to be paranoid that the man was fuming every time the seat was bumped. I’m thinking if we started annoying him at any point he would have been comfortable enough to at least turn around and make a joke about it.

Also, do yourself a favor and get some Kids Headphones. These are some of the best customer rated kids headphones on the market!

Here is one of my goodie bags filled with wrapped surprises. It made it through security, but there’s always a chance that they will have to open the gifts if the x-rays make them suspicious of something.

(Side note: I love these water bottles for kids!)

Most of the small wrapped gifts for this flight were figurines from the Goodwill and small pieces of candy. I also found some cool washi tape from Amazon that is reusable and kinda feels like the sticky part of a post it note.

We had a lot of fun putting together a lego spiderman car. It was a small miracle we didn’t lose one of the tiny pieces on the floor of the plane. Only downside was the plane was dark and mostly quiet by the time we were putting it together and he was just SO excited and kept yelling out with glee. Eh, better than crying.

(Another side note… get some of these Little Animal Toys: Again, go to a thrift store for these little guys, but it’s hard to beat this deal on Amazon for new ones!)

So, when we were waiting for our row’s turn to exit the plane a lady tapped me on the shoulder and said “Your parenting was a real pleasure to witness.” I couldn’t tell if she was joking, so I said, “He wasn’t too loud?” (Because he totally was loud most of the time.) She said, “Well kids are loud, but you guys did a wonderful job with him.” So I’m willing to bet she wasn’t the same lady who heard him yell DAMMIT as we were boarding.

As we left the airplane the pilot was just exiting the cockpit and asked him if he wanted some wings. He was so stinkin’ proud of those wings! He has worn them quite a few times since then :)

So at the end of the day it was a very successful flight! Three and a half is a whole new ball game for 6+ hour flights – so much easier than the 12-24 month age. We have one more long flight before we reach our new home, but I have a few more new ideas up my sleeve for that one. And miles to go before we sleep!

How cute is this leather kids backpack with a plane stitched on?

What are your favorite toys/games/snacks to pack in order to have a successful flight with a little one?