Entertaining the Kids While Travelling

If you are looking for ideas to keep the kids entertained while travelling you are in the right place! From Arts and Crafts to Podcasts and FREE Printables we’ve got it covered!

As we have family spread across the country, our children have been taken on long car journeys from being tiny. It’s just part of life for us, every couple of months to strap everyone into the car and travel 5+ hours. We’ve regularly been told we are brave and/or crazy for this but with the right planning and the right attitude, car journeys with small people don’t have to be a nightmare.

Traveling with kids can be such a chore, you’ve spent months planning your amazing trip, the last few days packing and your 30 minutes into your journey and the kids start asking “Are we there yet?”. Here at Mini Travellers, we know exactly how you feel, so we’re sharing with you 11 things you need to keep your kids occupied when traveling. 

I recently came across this post by the lovely Amy at Everything Mummy. It has some great ideas to keep your kids entertained on a long car journey!  Click Here.

Art and Craft Activities

The Mister Maker craft boxes by toucanBOX are a small but perfectly formed resource which, once you subscribe, arrives in the post, small enough to fit through your letter box. A little smaller than a piece of A4 paper and invitingly decorated, the box is tightly packed with all you need to complete a craft based project.

Mister Maker Craft Boxes

Little Scribblers Busy Bags and Activity Packs are designed for ‘on the go’ educational fun and entertainment.  Aimed at Early Years children, the packs cover a wide range of the Early Years Framework and encourage children to actively learn.

  • Travel Tips: Craft Time Mosaics

Craft Time Mosaics are perfect for travelling with kids!

Take a read of this review and find out what we thought of the Pipity Activity Sets.

Pipity Activity Sets

Download the 30 free pages of Frozen coloring pages in this post.  Click on the download button to open the PDF file and then save to your computer to print out when the rain starts!

This is a guest post from Fuelled by Latte. My Little World is a new craft toy where children use the simple tools of drawings and colouring crayons to create an exciting role play world. It is made completely of cardboard cut outs, it is eco-friendly, and to be honest it feels like good old fashioned fun!

Toys, Games and Books

Orchard Travel Games

When we were asked to test Orchard’s new Travel Games, we were thrilled. These little boxes are small, but perfectly formed and pack neatly into my changing bag as entertainment for my 6 year old. There are a wide variety of titles which span across the age groups (from 3 to 8 years old) and there are 6 titles to choose from.

If you are anything like me, whenever you go out for the day, let alone on holiday, the car is packed full of things that I may possibly need and actually never end up getting out.  Nevertheless, when faced with having to pack a weeks’ worth of toys and entertainment, this did fill me with dread!  However, some careful research and planning and we ended up with enough compact resources to entertain them all week!

We’ve all been there, on our way to that long awaited beach holiday, we’re not even off the motorway and the kids are telling us, ‘I’m bored!’. I don’t think as parents that there is ever a way to stop those dreaded words, but there is definitely ways to keep them at bay for much longer with these new travel games.

Are you planning a long journey with the kids? Why not try these six fun (and free) travel games?  As when it comes to entertaining the little ones whilst travelling, it’s not all about activities you can do on the plane or beach.

7 games to play while travelling with kids - FREE PRINTABLE

I’m often in situations where I’m traveling with my own kids and looking for games to play. So I searched the internet and found a whole new world full of fun games that I have both tried and can’t wait to try and decided to turn them into a helpful post for you.

We love a travel game here at Mini Travellers HQ. We are away a lot and often need to pack a few small things in a small bag to entertain the kids.  I’ve put together a list of our favourite travel games for Kids to take away on holiday wherever that may be.  So in no particular order our top five

When we go away whether for a weekend or a longer holiday the girls always pack a little bag with books, pens, colouring books etc etc. Recently it has been all about little characters too.  The front pocket of their backpacks is always filled with various characters from Disney to Peppa Pig and now these Lalaloopsy.

We were asked if we would like to review the A-Z Magnatab by Kid O. It’s described on the website as “A true sensory lesson for children! Feel the pull of the magnet, hear the clicking of the beads, see the letters forming and gently touch the beads down again for a tactile experience. 

When I was asked if my daughter would like to try a Leapfrog LeapReader (aimed at children aged 4-9) I jumped at the chance. Lily who is nearly 5, with a September birthday and who will only start school in September, is desperate to learn to read. 

We were lucky enough to be sent a pack of Weird But True playing cards at the start of half term. We had my nephews and niece staying over the holidays so they were thoroughly tested by a range of children aged from 3 to 13. Oh, and I might have sneaked into the games once or twice too – can’t let the kids have all the fun!

It’s June, the sun is shining and the summer holidays are fast approaching. We’ve got a fantastic selection of books this month whether you’re looking for ways to entertain young readers at home or on holiday.

Technology

What if there was a way you could get your kids to spend less time on the screens of their phones, TV, Computers or tablets and still deliver educational content to them? When the concept of podcasts came around, the main target was adults but over the years, these podcasts have diversified to get kids in on the action.

Top 10 Podcasts for Kids

Launched in June 2018, the Fire HD 10 Kids Edition features a brilliant 10.1” 1080p Full HD screen, a powerful processor, 32 GB of storage, and up to 10 hours of battery life, plus a year of Amazon Fire for Kids Unlimited, a kid-proof case, and a 2-year worry-free guarantee – all for only £199.99 – so what did we think?

The a MiFi is a small, portable router for use on holidays or when travelling around in the UK or abroad. It works by using a data SIM card inside the router which has its own 3G or 4G connection (4G reverts to 3G where the 4G signal is weak or non-existent). 

10,400 mAh battery capacity, Portable, rugged, shockproof and water-resistant., Will charge most smart phones up to 8 times and most Tablets up to 5 times., Super Fast Power Up, Designed to work in any environment, Flexible

An essential for travelling with toddlers is in my opinion the iPad/Tablet. We have embraced it.  It works.   It keeps them and us sane on a long journey: but what do you do if you get in the car and the iPad isn’t charged or you have done a long journey and haven’t charged it to go back?!? It can be a crisis.

I was delighted when My Doodles asked if we wanted to try out their iPad covers.  They come in a variety of different styles, sizes and designs.  You can go for something more discreet that the iPad slides in and out of, or you can go for the completely protect, sit on your lap, pretty difficult to break iPad cover.

Summer’s here, school’s out and that means one thing – it’s time for that family trip away. But before you can enjoy some quality time away, there’s a challenge to overcome. Yes, keeping your back-seat passengers happy.

  • On the Movies Backpacks – Perfect for the Car

I have been looking for a tablet to add to our ‘activity bag’ for a while now, it needed to be child friendly and hold the attention of a toddler that knows her way around a smart phone– there is no fooling them these days is there? So, when On the Movies asked if I would like to try out their Pretty Kitty Bag with 8GB tablet I was very excited!

We are huge fans of iPads when we travel. We restrict the use of them during term time, but when we travel in the car, on the aeroplane, or on the ferry we do let the kids play to pass away the time.  Recently I’ve been asked a few times whether I know of any fun but educational apps for the tablet/iPad so here is a simple list of some we have tried.

Why BookBeat – the new audio book streaming service – is the perfect travel companion!

CozyPhones - The Headband Headphones www.minitravellers.co.uk

My kids love these CozyPhones headphones! As soon as we sat on the plane the girls begged to have them on. They used them to watch the inflight entertainment and to play games on their iPads.

Free Printable Activities by Mini Travellers!

If you’re about to take a trip and are looking for something to keep the kids occupied, these FREE printables are exactly what you need!

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