Mr. Pen’s family lives in New York, so he tries to make a point to visit every year. This year, due to my school and work schedule, I’ll be unable to join him – but he’s planned a fun-filled trip with J and spending lots of time with his family he scarcely sees. In preparation for their trip, I’ve been helping as much as I can making packing lists and finding ideas on how to entertain a toddler on a plane. In the past, he was under a year old for his trips to NY and we didn’t have to worry about this as much.
This week I decided to check out the dollar store for some ideas on what to pack specifically for the flight, the idea being that new things are novelties and more exciting than even bringing along his favorite toy. The other idea being that, two-year-olds lose things. A lot. So if I stock up with dollar-store items, the loss won’t be so significant.
I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to find that I will be packing for J.
I found an amazing idea online to wrap up new novelties and present them periodically as gifts while on the plane. This will be exciting, new, and of course half the fun is just opening it – plus getting a new toy or activity.
2. Snack Cups
Can’t beat $1 for 5 snack cups! With the price, it won’t matter if they get lost, dirty or broken – and it’s a great idea to pack several small snacks. I don’t know about your toddler – but mine is very easily appeased by food!
3. Toy dinosaur
I wish I had known the dollar store sold $1 dinosaur toys before I paid $5-$8 for each dinosaur for the ones from Schleich! J loves dinosaurs and I know he will be giddy playing with this on the plane.
4. Puzzle
The upside to this puzzle is that it’s also contained in a cardboard frame, and the pieces are large. J loves his Melissa and Doug puzzles, but with the small pieces and their large size it wouldn’t be a great airplane item.
5. Sticker Books
I scoured the internets looking for some nice sticker activity books because of how much J loves stickers – and most ranged from $5-$10, but without being able to see them, it was hard to choose and some didn’t have great reviews. Amazingly enough, I found these three sticker books for $1 each, 80 stickers a book, and three different ones!
6. Stickers
J was with me at the dollar store and I let him pick out the ones he wanted – he chose this set of 50 stickers including trucks, buses, planes and helicopters, or what he calls “Ooh-rockers.” That sounds like helicopter, right?
7. Crayons and construction paper pad
Of course what’s a flight without some drawing. Simple, easy and cheap.
8. Play cars/trucks
Admittedly, the quality on these trucks are pretty bad. J’s Tonka dump truck is his absolute favorite toy he owns. But for $1, I couldn’t pass up another thing to give him on the plane.
. . . . .
There were so many things to choose from at the dollar store, I was impressed. There was even a lot for older kids such as school-age that would be fun to wrap up and give as new gifts on a long flight. I hope this helps Mr. Pen survive the flight while traveling solo with J!
Do you have any favorite dollar store finds?
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
Great finds! We also played with a small cup of ice and an extra cup (from the airline) for a long time on our flight and spent a lot of time looking at the in flight sky mall magazines. Stickers were awesome too. Good luck to Mr. p!
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
That’s a great idea, I never think to check out the dollar store, but will be doing so before our beach trip in July, thanks!
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
Great finds! Stickers kept her really occupied.
Also, as we boarded the plane, I let her have some wipes and she helped clean the plane (seat, windows, tray, etc). This kept her occupied almost until it was time for the plane to pull away! And you’re going to pack wipes anyways!
cherry / 231 posts
We are taking a long train ride soon. These are great ideas! I’ve been wondering how to keep dd occupied for so long. The dollar store might be the answer!
grapefruit / 4717 posts
I did something similar. Found these great color/shape/first word flashcards that came with stickers. He loved them! Also found Sesame Street stickers in 2 diff designs. We just brought an old note pad, and he went to town.
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
Yay sticker books! Remember those ridiculous licensed ones we had as kids and you had to buy expensive little packs of rectangular stickers to go inside?
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
Nice finds!!
My husband and I were just talking about 99cent/dollar stores over the weekend because we saw one closing down. He said that because of inflation, dollar stores are really suffering because the prices for things are increasing, but because they’ve already “set” their price in their brand, it’s tough for them to pass on the costs down to their customers. Just thought that was an interesting fact.
grapefruit / 4649 posts
Fun! You found some great options! If you have any laying around, pack some contact paper. After opening a few of his surprises he can stick the tissue paper on for a collage.
blogger / persimmon / 1220 posts
Great finds!
guest
When we went on vacation as kids, my Mom always packed our carry ons with wrapped goodies! I can’t wait until I can do that with my son!
guest
We’re about to board a flight with our toddler this week and I stocked up at Target’s dollar spot on just these kinds of goodies. I was going to wrap the items I got too but wondered if that was allowed. I know I’ve actually had to unwrap a gift in my carry-on before. It would be such a bummer to have that happen here.
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
I need to hit the dollar store for our road trip in August!
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
Did 12 hour drive with M and 14 back (different route) and was well stocked since it was our first super long solo ride. He was a dream, thank you dollar store!
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
These are such great finds for $1!! Why don’t I shop there more often!?
blogger / nectarine / 2687 posts
great finds and ideas!