When it comes to entertaining my kids during travel, I’m not anti-tech or anti-screen time by any means. But I will try to exhaust some no-tech options to entertain my kids in the car or airplane before I resort to the screen time option. Some of these toys and activities are great for waiting in general, like at the doctor’s office or a restaurant.

Here is a brief list of toys I’ve used mostly for my kids beginning at about 18 months of age. I think some of these will get him through to 4-5 years of age. I would love to grow this list so if you have some ideas, please share!

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Melissa and Doug Sticker Pads Set

Sticker Pad Sets from Melissa and Doug such as Jewelry and Nails and Sweets and Treats, Make a Face, Make a Meal have saved me on long road trips. This no-mess, disposable activity occupies my kids for a while. There’s so much language to target here in offering choices, having the kids point to things I name, describing what they see (e.g. chocolate swirly ice cream, on the cake, next to the juice, she has brown eyes, I like the big blue necklace, etc). It’s been helpful to put the paper on a clipboard for them while I hold the sticker pad.

Melissa and Doug On the Go Water Wow

These On the Go Water Wow Pads from Melissa and Doug are great for no-mess art on the go. In the car, waiting for food at a restaurant, in church, and many more. I get a lot of use out of these. Again, I love the amount of language you can target to describe the scenes. They are small and pack easily.

Melissa and Doug Seek and Find Stickers

These Melissa and Doug Seek and Find Sticker Pads are another great toy for travel. My son loves activities where something is hiding. You get to place a sticker on an item and then you can color the rest of the picture. Busy scenes provide opportunities to target tons of vocabulary.

Melissa and Doug Reusable Stickers

I can’t tell you how much I love these Reusable Stickers by Melissa and Doug. With a variety of scenes, there is a ton of vocabulary to target for early language learners. Not only the nouns themselves (e.g. elephant, giraffe, etc), but location words (e.g. the alligator is beside the rock), descriptors (e.g. the big blue hippo, etc). As a speech therapist, I like to use these with kids who are able to sit and attend to an activity for a while and who are working on phrases and sentences. As a mom, this is a great toy to take on trips because it packs up so well. The only way I keep my sanity with this toy is by storing them in an 11×14 portfolio book. You can find a portfolio book at craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michaels. It makes it easy to keep the stickers with their scenes in one place. If my kids were a little older and they could manage the stickers on their own, I think this toy would make a good toy for in the car on long road trips. They stick to windows which makes it fun. My son has abused these stickers and crinkled them in his hands and they retain their shape. I just love these!

Magnetic Tiles

We love Magnetic Tiles for at home, for our destination, and thanks to a suggestion I saw from A Mom Explores, in the car on a cookie sheet.

Now that my kids have enjoyed Magnet Tiles on a cookie sheet, I’m interested in trying other magnetic toys on a cookie sheet such as Melissa and Doug Dress-Up Dolls Pretend Play Set or Dress-Up Occupation Play Set.

Hand Pointers

These Hand Pointers are so simple and might sound too good to be true. But these occupied my son for a while during a road trip, just talking about what we saw out the window. He got a kick out of pointing to things. There are lots of ideas such as looking for the letters of the alphabet in signs, looking for things that are certain colors (point to something yellow), or things that start with letters in the alphabet (e.g. animal, bus, car, etc.).

Busy Cube

This busy cube is a ton of fun and features a few widget toys surrounding the sides of a cube such as a spinner, key and lock, a faucet switch, and more. When this one lands in my hands, I often find myself playing with it.

Pop Fidget Toys

These pop fidget toys, pop its, or fidget poppers have been very popular. This is another toy that I end up playing with myself when it lands in my hands.

Crayola Double Doodle Board

This Crayola Double Doodle Board was a nice hand-me-down we received that offers no mess doodling. One side has a gel surface to play around with and the other offers a surface with washable crayons or dry-erase markers.

Crayola Color Wonder Markers

As a fan of no-mess art, I love Crayola Color Wonder Markers. The markers only show up on the Color Wonder paper instead of everywhere else like arms, legs, clothes, etc.

Dry Erase Boards and Books

I started giving my son a dry-erase board and books when he became a little more independent with markers. We have something similar to this book where he can practice following lines and drawing shapes and letters. Wipe clean and do it all over again!

Tip – I really like dry-erase markers with an eraser on the cap because the kids seem to enjoy erasing just as much as drawing.

Magna Doodle

A Magna Doodle is a classic toy great for travel. You can’t go wrong with a Magna Doddle. We have a fairly large one which works fine, but I would also be interested in having a travel size.

Montessori Busy Board

My kids have enjoyed playing with this Montessori Busy Board. There are some educational concepts to discuss and the kids enjoy trying some fine motor tasks like tying laces, zipping zippers, snapping buckles, etc. I like how it is self-storing and folds up, easy to pack on trips.

We have a boy’s version. There are multiple versions including a girl’s version.

Seek and Find Books

My kids love books where they have to look for something hidden in the pictures. I assure you there is a child behind this large book – Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. She spent a lot of time looking for Gold Bug on each page.

Some other ideas include Where’s Waldo books, I Spy books, and Highlights Hidden Pictures.

Melissa and Doug Paint with Water Activity Book

I don’t think I would be brave enough to try these while in motion in a car or a plane, but this Melissa and Doug Paint with Water Activity Book really comes in handy while waiting at stops like restaurants. It’s a nice change up from predictable crayons often offered in restaurants, so my kids always get excited about this. All you need is to pack a few paintbrushes and grab a small cup of water. What I love most is that the paint is actually conveniently located on a strip on each picture so you don’t have to pack containers of paint separately. These aren’t perfect and sometimes it can feel like there isn’t enough paint, or the brush can soak through the paper. But, the cleanup is really easy and this is the most I’ll attempt as far as painting while traveling.

Here are a few other toys that we don’t own, but I have my eye on:

Additional Tips for Traveling with Kids

Some other tips to get through road trips include:

  • Snacks, snacks, and snacks. Check out my recipe for pepperoni rolls. We live on pepperoni rolls for road trips, hiking, biking, playground days, and more. Special road trip snacks might help too, something that the kids don’t usually get at home.
  • A good playlist. Our Spotify subscription has really come in handy when having kids.
  • Stop when needed. Instead of stopping at a restaurant, we might grab food to go and take it to a playground where the kids can get some energy out. In the cold season, we are always looking for McDonald’s Play Place.

When You Need to Pull Out Your Smart Phone or Tablet

Sometimes these toys and activities might not work and you feel the need to pull out your technology. You can play that favorite show or movie. And if you want to open some apps for play there are a few things I’d like to share:

  • Guided Access – On Apple devices, there is a feature called Guided Access where you can lock your child into an app, so they don’t surf your phone, text someone, order something from Amazon, etc.
  • There are tons of educational apps out there to consider, but I’m providing some I love to use as a speech therapist and mom: Shoe the Goose Apps (bake a cake, make a monster truck, etc.) Toca Boca Apps (feed the monster, give Santa a haircut), Peekaboo Barn (and others, great for teaching vocabulary), and ABCya. I would love to hear about your favorite apps.

I’d love to grow this list and try more ideas with my kids. So please feel free to share more ideas if you have them. If you found this helpful, please tag me on Instagram @adventureswkelly so I can see your travel activities for kids.