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.

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1. Tissue Paper

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.

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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?