I wrote this post two years ago, but never hit publish. Because, honestly, I asked myself if the world really does need more tips for plane travel with kids. But since we’re about to hop on our first 10 hour flight today (holy moly!), I figured that today was the day to share my bits of plane wisdom. Note that the kids are now 5.5 and 3.5, and they are so tickled to get their own apple juice and plane snacks that flying has become relatively easy. Here’s the original post:

Does the world need more tips for traveling on a plane with kids?

Maybe not, but considering that every parent stresses over this portion of their vacation, I think it’s always worth it to have a few more tricks up your sleeve.

Here’s our situation : we have two kiddos, a 3.5 yo and a 1.5 yo. We go on at least two big flights a year, sometimes more. This summer, between June and September, the boys took 4 round-trip flights. That’s 8 times that we had to prepare these kiddos to take it easy and enjoy the ride.

• screens – I think this one depends upon your stance on screens. We are minimal screen people, we use them, but don’t rely on them. We don’t own an ipad, but I know that some parents swear by them, and I’ve seen the wonders that they can do when a kid is old enough to sit still and watch/play with it. When I’m traveling solo with the kids, I’m also often traveling without a computer too (insane!), but I do have my phone, and if they start to get anxious, I’ll whip it out and show them old photos and videos of themselves – they love it! When we do have a computer, we’ll sometimes hook Alex up with a movie. When he has a personal screen on the seat in front of him, I let him watch a movie if requested.

• new toys – everyone knows this trick. Buy them a few new toys that they get to open on the plane or in the airport if you have a long layover. When buying new toys for travel, pay attention to size and the number of pieces. The fewer pieces to lose the better, and the easier it is to fit in your carryon, the better. One of the biggest hits for my boys was when I bought them both new airplanes that make noise and have flashing lights. I planned ahead and knew that I was going to pick them up in the airport bookstore. They boys played with those planes for hours.

• craft supplies – you aren’t going to whip out a hot glue gun on the plane, but some supplies can keep them busy for a long time. We’ve had a lot of luck with colorful pipe cleaners, puffy stickers, and those preschool sewing cards. The pipe cleaners can be bent and twisted to make different shapes, you can weave them through straws, button holes, etc. Our boys love stickers, and I’ve found that if you take the puffy ones on planes, then you can let the kids put them on anything in your row (window, tray, seat, etc), and they are really easy to peel off when cleaning up.

• wiggle time! – Unless you’re traveling during nap or bed time, it can be really hard to expect kids to sit still for hours on end. When the boys are getting antsy, I try to find something for them to do that will keep them in our row, but let them move a little bit while still not bumping the seats in front of us. My favorite move is to give them both diaper wipes and asked them to clean the plane – they love it! Do you ever give your kid a wipe and let them just play with it? I think there’s something about touching and play with the cool, wet wipe that’s really exciting for them.