haniboo

please share your more creative entertaining ideas. i am afraid the gameboy batteries may run out. thanks

WhoME

Plane watching! If you can find a good vantage point (lounges or observation decks at many airports), watching the planes take off and land is fun for all ages.

Michael

nfc

Depending on the type of traveling you're doing and your kids ages, take a good World or US map. Airports are great for impromptu geography lessons. Find the cities and countries where flights are arriving from or headed to and let the kids mark them off. Early on, the game is pretty easy. The more your family tavels, the greater the challenge in finding new places to mark off.

If you're really adventurous and have a good amount of time to kill, visit the gate where the flight is arriving/departing before marking off a location on the map. Good way to burn off excess energy during a long connection.

JMK1K

How old are your kids? Our young kids love watching the tarmac action from a window - planes, luggage trucks, fuel trucks, etc. make for good entertainment.

For older kids, the world map idea is terrific. A deck of cards can go a long way also.

massiek

I have a 12 year old and one of our favorite pass-the-time games is to guess the color of the next car to pass by. You could modify this to guess the color of the next suitcase, although with suitcases, blue or black would probably win 90% of the time.

Another suggestion, depending on the airport, is to rent a DVD player from In-Flight rental.

HTH.

TrojanHorse

thats what the plugs are for plus we have cigarette lighter adapters that work on AA planes as well.. batteries are seldom an issue.. add: DVD players, checkers, and food and you have no problems.. now I never had one of those totally problem days with kids where your flight is cancelled and so are the next three flights where you have to kill 8 hours in an airport.. but If it was at an airport with a kids club in the A/C (DFW, LAX...) that is worth quite a few hours in itself..

SolSolstice

I live by the "I Spy" series of books. We currently have 5 of them, but I understand there are something like 10. It doesn't matter how many times my son has read them (He's 10 right now), they still keep him occupied for a couple of hours on each book, what with the little extra searches they have. I have had other kids on airplanes or at the gates come and join our searches in these books; they can keep kids quiet and entertained throughout a journey.

"Where's Waldo" series of books are much the same. They would also be something I would recommend.

l etoile

Teach them how to tell planes apart (B737, B757, A320, etc.) and have them watch out the window and identify the various a/c.

rkt10

When we were kids we took the local trains between our town and South Station in Boston. While waiting for our train to head home we would pretend we were detectives and follow a passenger around. If the passenger noticed us, we would pretend to veer off. We thought it was a riot.

Or, as adults we would try to decide just by looking at people whether they would do something: For example, if that person found a wallet with ID in it, and a lot of money, would they skim some of the money off before returning the wallet? Would they return the wallet empty? Would they return the wallet at all? Somewhat cyincal but funny too.

Also, just try to guess what the individual does for an occupation. It's not whether you're right or wrong. It's the cleverness of the guess.

Rita

dannyr

I would have no problem doing this outside of the USA however I'd be very cautious if doing this - ESPECIALLY in an airport. People are jumpy and on edge due to the media hyped terrorism threats, and being followed - even by kids - may not be what they want. You're likely to find a nice chat from airline staff or TSA forthcoming.

SAFLYER66

I have a 18, 11, and 7 year old. I started my kids on flying with my 11 year old was 3 years old. Except for my 18 year old the boys I pack there own back packs. They have 2 bottles of water, and 2 juice boxes or gatorade. O have snacks, trail mix, twizzlers, and fruit. Then I pack for the my portable dvd players with 2 favorite movies each and coloring books and colors and 2 hand held games, that keeps my kiddos happy.

shl1108

that sounds like what I do with my kids. I try to bring things that last a long time..the movies are always great. And snacks/drinks of course are a total necessity. My kids also love to play cards on long flights and long waits at the airport.
They also have magnetic chess and checkers that comes in a travel size.

fallinasleep

What did parents do before portable DVD players and hand-held games? Any low-tech solutions?

Wanderbug

Waaaaay back in the low-tech dark ages my mother would buy me a few brand new puzzle/coloring/activity books that I wasn't allowed to touch until at the airport/on the plane. (The kind with several different types of games held my interest the longest.) She would also only allow comic books for planes. Knowing that they were brand-new and a special treat for the plane made it kind of fun. I seem to remember one flight that also came with a thing of silly putty. I thought it was great, don't have any idea how the FA's felt about it....

Plus, I've always been a reader, so that probably helped my mom deal with me more easily. With that thought, how about Harry Potter books if (somehow) they haven't read them yet? THEY'LL certainly kill a few hours!

However, as a very much "grown-up" fellow traveler now, I'm actually more in favor of finding ways of encouraging them to work off as much energy BEFORE they get on the plane as possible to reduce the squirming & kicking that kids being kids can't really help doing.

dba

We always buy new books or toys (or BOOKS ON TAPE -- big hit for our 6-year-old) but we try to save all of those for the plane ride itself.

In the airport, I am big on exploration if we have enough time and if one parent is willing to stay with the luggage (she usually is ). We like to see what the stores are like, to watch the airplanes take off, and anything else we can figure out about how an airport is different from a non-airport space.

Again, she is 6. When she's 10 I'm sure it will be another kettle of fish (I'm hoping she'll do what I did -- read read read read read and keep reading even while walking on to the jetway).