20+ Cheap AIRPLANE Activities for a 1-Year-Old Baby/Toddler

Low-Cost Activities for Long Flights with a Toddler

Britney, a mother of a 13-month-old, shares affordable activity ideas for upcoming flights from Vancouver to Boston and Boston to Scotland. Her son has already taken 13 flights, but most of the activities she discusses are ideas she had not yet tried on the plane.

Planning Tips

• Keep activities completely new to your child until the flight. The novelty may help hold their interest.
• Offer one activity at a time. For example, count a snack as its own activity rather than combining it with a movie.
• Consider each item’s size and weight in relation to how long your child might use it. Avoid bringing anything precious that could be lost or damaged.
• Favor inexpensive household or reusable items, and choose activities based on your child’s interests rather than assuming conventional toys will appeal to them.

Activity Ideas

• Snack containers: Fill a daily pill organizer with familiar and new snacks for your child to open compartment by compartment. A spill-resistant Munchkin snack catcher can also let a toddler retrieve snacks independently.
• Figures and tape: Bring small plastic figures and painter’s or masking tape. Your child can stick the figures to a tray table or window, or use the tape to make a “road” for them.
• Threading activity: Punch holes in a paper plate and let your child thread ribbons, yarn, pipe cleaners, or shoelaces through them.
• Stickers and a book: Bring stickers and a secondhand book to decorate.
• Small toys and cups: Try a small pinball game or mini cups for stacking and serving snacks.
• Wallets and cards: Offer an old wallet with safe, suitable cards to put in and take out. A small zippered wallet containing hair ties or rubber bands can also provide something to explore.
• Coloring: Use washable, non-toxic crayons with a coloring book or used book. Even if a young child mostly handles the crayons and their box, they may still find the activity interesting.
• In-and-out containers: Put cotton balls or pom-poms in an empty wipes container for a simple activity.
• Glasses case: Use a glasses case as a container-based activity. Britney also considered adding Velcro to create a small travel sensory board, though she had not settled on a design.
• Reusable coloring book: Britney had ordered a Water Wow-style reusable coloring book and planned to see how it worked.