Travel Activities for Todders
I’ve finally put together this master list of 21 affordable, easy to do, practical travel activities for toddlers, as part of my Traveling with Toddlers blog series! It includes free printables, DIY “toys”, and travel-themed activities from some of my favorite bloggers.
You can find instructions and more information (and, in some cases, the printable) by clicking on the links. I hope you’ll love it!
Printable Travel Activities for Toddlers:
Printables activities are an easy and cheap way to go! They’re limitless, and the supporting supplies are negligible. Plus, you can abandon them at your destination, and then re-print at home.
Practice some fine motor skills with these printable sewing cards from Pickle Bums
Make a DIY Doodle book with a free printable from Hi It’s Jilly:
I’ve created for you some printable travel sheets to use with Do a Dot mini markers:
Here’s a fun Spring coloring sheet from Arts & Cracker. Print out a bunch, and scribble away!
And here are some printable road trip drawing prompts from Pickle Bums!
DIY Travel Toys for Toddlers:
DIY toys make great travel activities for toddlers! Worry not about losing parts, while engaging for hours. They are compact, portable, and easy to stock up on.
Check out the cool things that Desert Chica Ramblings has done with these Velcro Craft Sticks:
I also love her cardboard building toy! We will be trying these ourselves.
Check out the DIY travel sorting toy for toddlers I made for M! He loves it. It’s self-contained and has plenty of spare parts.
These adorable discovery bottles from Mind of Meesh are also terrific – just make sure to only do the ones without water if you’re flying!
Book time! travel activities for toddlers:
Book activities have an extra level of of engagement in the form of turning pages – which toddlers love! Plus there’s more space to have fun!
Of course, bringing along a few favorite board books is the first way to go.
Get creative with a chalkboard book from Parenting Chaos!
Or make this no sew quiet book , chock full of fun activities, a la Can’t Google Everything.
Travel-friendly Activity Trays for Toddlers:
Pack along one for a plane ride, or a few for your road trip. These activity trays are a great, contained way to entertain on the way!
This one from Growing Book by Book involves an adorable car trip game:
This Disney Planes travel activity tray from Occasionally Crafty is perfect for a long flight!
Here’s another great kids’ travel activity tray from Desert Chica Ramblings:
And another great activity tray from We Like to Learn As We Go:
And finally, Mission to Save uses promotional magnets to create car ride game trays.
Creative Stimulation on the go…
Kids should learn be creative from the start, and on the go is the perfect time to implement that!
I put together this travel-friendly Crayola busy bag for our trip. You can combine that with Sunny Day Family’s drawing kit ideas as well. Or, you can check out the adorable travel chalkboard that Simplee Thrifty created.
And when all else fails…
Pull out that smart device! There’s a reason they call it smart… it’s the only one that knows how to entertain your toddler when no one else can! Dowload some favorite movies and apps, connect some volume-limiting headphones, and your toddler will be busy!
If your nerves are frazzled by the time you get to that stopover, involve your toddler in some family yoga at the airport. It’s a definite fix…
Do you have any travel activities for toddlers that you’d like to share? Comment below!
Follow along with the rest of the traveling with toddlers series by clicking on the image below. You’ll find helpful tips, printables and more!
These are great ideas and not just for traveling but I think these would work great for those times at church when my 4 y/o has no class to go to and has to sit in the sanctuary with us. I would also love something like this for teenagers cause it’s all my 13 y/o can do to sit through a sermon. Due to his ADHD we allow him to leave once and go for a walk until he feels he can sit through the rest of it. We only have 2 rules: 1. Stay inside the church. We attend a large church and it’s monitored with video cameras that are watched during the sermon so I know he can’t get into any trouble without some very large men knowing and he knows that too. 2. Once he comes back that’s it. He can’t leave again until the pastor dismisses us.
These are some cute ideas. I will be able to use some of these when traveling with the grandkids. Thank you so much for sharing
These are some cute ideas. I will be able to use some of these when traveling with the grandkids. Thank you so much for sharing
I’ll certainly be making the velcro craft sticks to my list. I also like to create felt scenes for my toddler to keep in a zip lock for an easy travel activity. This takes up more space than you might want for an airplabe, but little gift boxes stacked inside each other are always fun.
I love the velcro sticks and the cardboard building set! These ideas really bring traveling into the toddler perspective and make the concept accessible. Thanks!
Thank you for including my discovery bottles! Love the round up!