Travelling with a toddler
Travelling to new destinations is what our family is most fond of; we try to make sure that we take at least 2 vacations in a year, more the merrier. After Nemit’s birth we have started linking vacations to special occasions, so we prefer travelling around our birthdays and anniversary dates. We have already taken this year’s 2 trips, Malaysia on Nemit’s 1st birthday and the Maldives on our anniversary.
I was quite sure that we are already done with this year but surprisingly hubby started giving hints of planning another trip for my Birthday and who can say ‘NO’ to a vacation offer? Not me, for sure.
So, as many of you know that recently we made a trip to Kerala (India) with our 19-month-old boy to celebrate my Birthday, it was Nemit’s 6th trip and just like the other 5, it came out to be super fun as he had an amazing time in God’s own country and highlight of the trip was he had the company of his Nani and Dadi (Nemit’s grandmothers) to pamper him with all the care and love in the world.
I always take a lot of time planning our vacations just to make sure we have a smooth experience throughout. Since this vacation was 9 days long and included lots of travelling by road, ranging from hills to beaches, I had to make sure that Nemit stays happy and engaged in the car as that’s the most difficult part of traveling with a toddler, they simply refuse to stay seated for long.
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From checking comfortable and child-friendly hotels and resorts to arranging toys and activities to keep him happily busy I did all just to make sure we do not have a cranky child ruining the trip for everyone. Nobody likes to enjoy or relax when there is a crying baby hanging around. Now that we were 4 adults, I can say it was a plus for us as whenever he got bored with one he would hop on to the other one.
Most of the times, it was Nani/Dadi he would go to, and Papa if he wants to take a nap or just to have some dude talk and Me if he wanted to do some Dudu business or simply when getting bored!
I want to share what actually worked for us during the whole trip. I prepared a bag of toys for Nemit and kept it with us wherever we went to, the beach, the restaurant, poolside, in the car, during the flight, almost everywhere. Made it as a separate bag to be taken along as cabin baggage.
This minion backpack was gifted to us by a dear friend on Nemit’s birthday; it has 2 compartments, front one with more space and back with little lesser space. So, I used the back one to keep books and at the front, I placed another small bag containing toys and few more things separately. You can check the images below to get an idea.
Books
1. Picture Books –
I bought these super light, small size bright lively books from a local market under 50 Rs each. The eye-catching illustrations help in the fun way of learning. I kept-
- 1 animals book (as he like animals)
- 1 Vegetable’s book (as that was new to him)
You can keep any number of books you like as per your child’s liking. These 2 books were enough for us for 9 days and were the first ones to come out of the bag whenever there were no other activities to do, Nemit just loved these books; he now recognizes all the animals and vegetables from the book.
2. Colouring Book with 2 crayons –
This book is quite light too with just 8 pages of simple shapes & objects and came under 50 Rs. I kept 2 different colored crayons in case one gets broken or lost. Whenever Nemit used to get irritated, we would hand him this coloring book and he would happily scribble away his frustration.
3. Learning Colours Book –
Now this one is my favorite, I like the illustrations and bright colors. Each page has a color and 3 different objects of the same color so it was fun pointing at objects, naming them and linking them to the specific color. This one I bought for 75 Rs.
Doodle with Pen & Stamps
Apart from these books I also kept a Doodle, everyone knows one can never go wrong with a doodle and kids can never get bored of using a pen. During the trip, Nemit learned to draw a circle on his doodle and calls it a ball, Amazing, right! I got this one for 100 Rs, again from the same local market, there are many varieties available but for travelling, I liked this one, quite sturdy and served our purpose too.
The last and the best thing which I kept in the back pocket was an-
E-Book
This worked best for us at times when everything else failed. It’s a sound book with interesting activities & games and learning content. Use of screen media was on my mind while planning the trip as we can avoid mobiles, tablets, and television at home but almost impossible to avoid during the long travels and that too when you have elders accompanying you. Just because we had this book to our rescue our use of digital devices was limited for Nemit.
This is a 10-page interactive entertainment and learning book, the right side of the book has everything from alphabets, numbers, fruits, animals, vehicles, and characters to literature, short stories and classic rhymes and is operated with underlying touch buttons. Left side is full of games and activities like matching and counting games, there is a writing pad too. I bought it for 500 Rs and trust me it is my best buy among sound toys till now.
Now coming to the front pocket, more space meant we could take his toys along too, but as we all know kids get easily bored with old toys so I had to find some small and engaging new toys for Nemit.
These 3 toys were a savior–
- Sliceable Vegetables
- Building block pipes
- Building blocks
I didn’t keep the whole box of these toys, just a few of each in a separate bag and would give one at a time to Nemit, these kept him busy during the times when he was full of energy but has limited space to move around, so he would put all his excess energy and imagination into working with these, building and breaking. All these were new to him as I hadn’t introduced any of these blocks and vegetables earlier so that was also a plus point to keep him interested and engaged for long.
Apart from these toys, I kept a small bowl and 2 spoons in the same compartment of the bag and gave them to him with some dry snacks to eat on his own, that also kept him engaged for a stretch. Mostly helped at the restaurant when he was clearly not hungry or not interested in eating the regular stuff and we were rushing to finish ours.
These toys and books are what I found apt for my boy as per his age, interests, and liking. One thing I can assure all you parents is if the vacations are planned to keep in mind the interests of our kids then we can never go wrong if our kids are happy we can enjoy even at the wackiest of places.
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Few tips to make travelling, a fun family affair
1- Always try to be a part of your child’s play. If you hand over a book to the child, don’t expect him to go through the pages and enjoy on his own. He would appreciate your engagement.
2- Always try to relate items in the book to items in real. That will help him in understanding things better and could relate to real things.
3- For travelling purpose try to carry ‘not too costly’ new toys. As these will generate more interest and low cost will fall light on your travelling budget.
4- Never leave your toddler unattended with toys. They may take the small parts in their mouth like crayons or stamps of doodle. Even the small plastic parts that can result in choking hazard.
5- If possible, book flights and plan road journey around your little one’s nap time.
6- Avoid using devices to keep your child busy. That will keep him engaged but will have only negative effects. Also, you will lose on your bonding time, rather save them for the worst scenarios.
7- If possible ditch your devices for a certain period during the trip. Messages and Facebook updates can wait.
8- Pack a lot of snacks for kids. They love to munch anywhere anytime especially while travelling. Do keep a check on the salt and sugar content as too much of anything is bad.
9- During long road journeys, take little breaks after every 1-2 hrs. Let your kid move around a bit, change in environment helps a lot.
10- Lastly, what I always say, capture all the beautiful moments in your camera to preserve them forever.
Here’s a post where I have shared travel essentials while travelling with a toddler >>Check it out<<
Thanks for going through this post; I hope you found it good and helpful. Please do comment below, I would love to read your experience of travelling with a toddler too.
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Great ideas for traveling with a toddler! A doodle board is my favorite to carry but I do throw in some small activity toys as well.
Thanks for sharing your views Lata 🙂
I loved the tips you shared for travelling with toddlers. I loved it. Honestly I do carry a seperate bag of activities to keep my son engage.
Thanks for liking this post 🙂
Awesome ideas dear and travelling with family can also give couples much needed us time too! 🙂
Oh yes, its rare now that we get our time together but its always good when others pitch in for help 🙂
Ahh good you reminded me of our E-book just before our travel, which is just sitting in the cupboard and i almost forgot about it. One doubt- wasn’t carrying blocks difficult to keep picking up?
I didn’t keep the whole bag of blocks, just the 5-6 as shown in pic, 19 month old was happy playing with these 6 blocks. Hence I was care free, even if these got lost we have the whole bag intact back at home 😀 Have a happy vacation!
Great ideas!! We always keep colouring book and colours handy with us!
You can never go wrong with colours 🙂
This is such a nice post. I can’t express much in words but I love the way you had simplified the traveling tips.Last year, I also went on vacation with my 1.5-year-old boy and I can very well understand the importance of snacks, handy toys, and books. Also, I really want to know more about E book. Will google it. Thanks for sharing these awesome tips and pics are beautiful.
Thanks a lot Shipra for your lovely words, means a lot. Thanks dear 🙂
Great ideas to travel with kids. Books and toys are always helpful while travelling with small kids to keep them engaged.
Thanks Deepa 🙂
These are some great tips for parents who are traveling with kids. The doodle pad and some activity books are our favourites.
Thanks Preetjyot 🙂
Great informative article for moms. Travelling with toddlers is a challengeing one. These ideas can be helpful for making our trip easy and great. Thanks for sharing
So happy that you find it helpful. Thanks a lot Minakshi 🙂
Wonderful ideas.I never carry to forget my kids favourite books and toys while travelling. They dont play with them much but atleast I get a fall back option ready with me.
Yes, we should be ready always for any situation 😉 Thanks Charu
Loved your tips! The doodle pen is perfect! I am going to get that for my baby. We took our first trip when she was 9 months old and board books were a saviour. It was a 1 h 10 min flight and she slept through most of it. But I think that these tips are amazing for slightly older children. And the separate toy bag gets a big thumbs up from me! <3
Thanks for your views Nikita 🙂
Love the ideas! We’ve been travelling since both the kids were about a month old and I am very clear that I carry some of their comfort essentials no matter where we go. My husband just stopped me short of carrying our Play Pen to a holiday 😛
Haha…thank God he stopped you but I know how difficult it gets when it comes to packing for kids. Thanks for liking the post 🙂
Nice tips n good suggestions. Where can v get that E book in India?
I bought this E-book from a local toy store, i am not sure if its available online. Thanks for finding this post useful 🙂
Very descriptive and very well expressed…till now have had 3 trips with my baby who just completed 7 mnths..now I wud remember to keep a separate activity bag for her..thanks!!
Happy travelling Babita, thanks for liking the post 🙂
Hi…nice blog….beautifully written….jst wanted to knw when did u started nemeit using doodle or colouring books…my daughter is abt to be 1yr….shd i introduce them to her??
Hi Noopur, we gave Nemit his first doodle pad and coloring book at 14 months, though he was showing interest in using pen a much before that. You can give a pencil or toxin free crayon and a paper to your little girl and see, if she seems interested in scribbling you can introduce these. Thanks for your comment 🙂
The doodle and e book are new ideas for me… Would love to try that for Vihaan 🙂
Vihaan will love the doodle ❤
Very nice article. I like it very much. I also wrote an article on going out with toddler.
http://www.shraddhatripathi89.com/2017/11/going-out-with-toddler.html?m=1