Worksheets or Activity Books?

[niccig]

I was at Target and picked up a spiral bound notebook with activities for kids. The brand was Cranium Bloom. It comes with a dry erase pen and you can re-do the activities. DS enjoyed doing them at the restaurant. We've got a LONG trip to Australia in 6 weeks, and I thought I could find something similar. Either worksheets online that I could print out or activity books to buy. I don't mind something that will get used once and tossed, or something that we can keep. I could even laminate pages if I wanted to.

The Target book had things like matching - mother duck to baby ducks; circle blue items in the picture; draw a house; counting objects etc, find your way through the maze etc.

The flight is 13 hours, so the more quiet activities I can find, the better to keep DS amused! It also worked well in the restaurant.

ETA. here's the link to the book I bought. I could just keep it away from DS for the next 6 weeks, so it's new.
http://store.cranium.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=272_276&products_id=1130

[August Mom]

How about sticker books? BN has a good selection. You can usually get them at buy.com for less. Sticker books still occupy DS for awhile and he's 5.5 now.

TJ Maxx/Marshalls sometimes have dry erase activity books. Not sure about Taget, but Meijer has a section of all sorts of preschool activity books like mazes, dot to dot, etc.

The Kumon books are really nice too. BN has them.

Good luck.

[MamaKath]

Dry erase books (there are lots of theme ones), workbooks (they often have these at places like BJs, Costco, even Walmart and Target), Color Wonder by Crayola and sticker books would all work.

Also masking tape. It is cheap fun to stick to the chairs, themselves, etc but not permanent.

Momsminivan.com has some interesting stuff as games and activities for long road trips, many could be adapted for a plain ride.

You could plan an activity that would occupy like making a simple alphabet book. Bring a couple of magazines or catalogs (American girl catalogs are great- nonofensive pics, wide variety of realistic items; also toy catalogs), scissors, glue stick, markers, and a blank book(construction paper with wholes and yarn works, or a simple binder, etc). Put each letter of the alphabet on a page and cut and glue pics to go with it.

There are a lot of threads I think on the diaper bags board about long car trips too. I'll see if I can dig some up. They usually have good suggestions as well.

HTH~

[MamaKath]

Not sure how old your dc is, but here is a post where there were a lot of cartrip ideas for long drives. Many could be adapted for plane travel.

http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=234350&highlight=momsminivan

[ellies mom]

A good place to check is your local educational store. They tend to have a bunch of really cool things.

[sunriseiz]

all the pp's have great ideas. my dc also enjoy the little books that are 'painted' with water. i can't remember the name but we have several and have found them everywhere from target to kohls. the cool thing is that when they dry the color disappears so they can be 'painted' again.

have a great trip!

[brittone2]

DS is newly 4. We homeschool, but I don't "make" him do workbooks or anything like that. However, his sister still naps in my lap most afternoons, so he has to find something to do during that time that is quiet.

I print out mazes, dot to dots, make up pages of letters for him to trace (he likes doing this), make pages where I draw pictures and he matches them up w/ the correct number of items, etc. I keep these in page protectors in a binder, and keep a dry erase marker with the binder. He chooses to do this often during her naps, and they are reusable that way. You can also customize it to your DC's age/skill level that way.

DS also really likes playing mail right now. He has his own box of return address labels that we get for giving donations, etc. and then I give him extra junk envelopes, etc. We keep that in a page protector in the binder too. He's really learning a lot about writing/sounding out because he asks for different family member addresses and practices writing them. I think my DS may be a little older than yours, but even just playing w/ stickers, licking envelopes, drawing on envelopes might keep him busy. DS has also acquired quite an affinity for scotch tape recently...for some reason that keeps him very busy ;)

[katydid1971]

Kumon has nice workbooks you can get at B&N and other bookstores. They practice coloring, cutting, etc. Also I just bought the best stickerbooks at Costco. DS LOVES sticker books these are the priddy brand and I usually pay $5 at Target for a small version of the same books that are $8 and about 4 times as big at costco. DS also loves to glue stick. You could cut up some papers and put them into some kind of envelope and let him glue stick them. Just remember to bring baby wipes to clean him up afterwards :)

[niccig]

Wow, such great ideas. I'm going to use all of these ideas. I was actually surprised at how focused DS was on the activity book. We took it to a brunch with several other kids, and they all wanted to have a turn as well. I'll look around and see what I can find. Some activities DS can't quite do yet, but I think I'll make up a binder of these kind of activities to have with us on the road. He loves stickers, glue stick and his safety scissors, so that alone will keep him occupied. I've been wanting to make an alphabet book with him for a little while, and a perfect time to start would be the 2-3 hour wait at the airport to board the plane.

[californiagirl]

The Kumon books are great. bookcloseouts.com often has activity books and workbooks and the like, which is handy especially when they're going through sticker books at an amazing rate.

Sign up at www.doverpublications.com and you'll be able to download free samples every week. We also buy the books -- punch-out masks, stencils, and the new pocket activity books set are all big favorites.

[californiagirl]

The Kumon books are great. bookcloseouts.com often has activity books and workbooks and the like, which is handy especially when they're going through sticker books at an amazing rate.

Sign up at www.doverpublications.com and you'll be able to download free samples every week. We also buy the books -- punch-out masks, stencils, and the new pocket activity books set are all big favorites.