Travel game ideas

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Anyone had any luck with travel games? We are going to visit family before we leave for France so a few airplane rides ahead. I plan to buy some silly putty stuff and some other fiddle toys but Ive been looking at games like travel memory (my daughter loves memory and puzzles) and stuff like that. Just wondered if anyone had any ideas and or where to buy? I do have some things but I think new stuff would keep them occupied a bit longer. For those who dont know I have a 5 year old Autie daughter and a 7 (will be 8 at the beginning of next month) Aspie son.
Thanks in advance !

My son loved the Leapster and the learning cartridges. Mostly English and Math. He now uses his Laptop. He loves Sims and puzzle games. There are so many fun games that help them engage and learn. A good electronic unit has many different games available. A laptop can be had for just a few hundred dollars. The learning and game choices are almost unlimited.

We have a leapster and a nintendo ds (also a lap top) but I was looking for more ideas of travel games that we could play. I dont like them using electronics all the time because its a one person kind of thing. They really enjoy board games and our therapists have done great teaching them to take turns and to be a good sport about loosing (my 7 year old is still working on that). Just wondered if anyone had any ideas of good travel games that we could take on the plane....small, maybe magnetic pieces?

Sudoku is always really fun! It can keep anyone preoccupied for hours. Perhaps more word games like that would be fun? Like, hangman, or making an anagram, or perhaps a crossword?

I am going to France really soon. When are you going?

We've had off and on success with travel games, tending to fall back on the ever popular "I Spy" and various license plate games, instead of anything that comes in a package. The run-a-way long term success with the family has been stories on CD, or books on tape. At younger ages the ones from Disney and DK books; at older ages things like "A Little History of the World." They can move and wiggle and draw and look out the window while keeping their minds in a "book."

Other items that have worked well at different ages are transformer minis (all the parts stay attached!) mini electronic games (4 square, tetris, ping pong, etc).

Whatever you get, wrap it up as a gifts and allow them to open a new activity periodically. The unwrapping is entertainment by itself, for a couple of minutes.

Don't forget to check the current carry-on restrictions. No point in bringing something that will end up confiscated at the gates; I'm not sure if silly putty will make it through, unfortunately.

Scratch and Sketch books entertain my girls for surprising amounts of driving time.
There is always the old "shared picture" game. One person draws one line, passes page to other person. This continues until a shared picture is complete.
I like D.W.'s idea for individually wrapping activities. Just guessing what's in the wrapping could take a while. There are also being sold, currently, the I Spy in a tube type games. I think maybe Toys R Us carries them. They also make nice sensory shakers. http://www.amazon.com/Find-Games-Origin ... d_sim_hg_1

im not a fan of board type games when traveling mainly because they usually involve a lot of small pieces that inevitably get lost or dropped. we use electronics a lot, like ds, psp, mp3 players. get a little mp3 player that can play video and load it up with spongebob and dora and my little aspie is occupied for a long time. you can also buy those little books at the checkout stand with sudoku or crosswords, or the larger activity books for kids that have coloring and games and puzzles all in one book.

i also like the old fashion dots and boxes. make an entire sheet of dots and then connect the dots, one section at a time, taking turns. whoever has the most squares at the end wins. it can take a really long time to do a sheet of those, occupies multiple kids at once, and you can print them out from the computer really easy.

if you choose to take crayons, i suggest twistables =) they are the crayons from crayola that you twist up from a plastic tube, so they dont need sharpening and dont break in half.

if your kids like to read, leap frog tag story readers are cool. its the pen that you touch on words and it will read the entire story or lets you just hear individual words. buying books new gets expensive but you can often find someone selling sets on ebay or craigslist. you can use these with headphones so they are travel friendly =)

In two months....where are you visiting?

Yeah, I was reminded by my therapist about taking things on the airplane....so no putty. I also bought them a game with water inside so we will wait until we get on the plane and put the water in it then....Its not very big. Today I got travel Trouble and Candy Land...my son picked them out. I also got one of those faces with the magnetic dust in the bottom and the pen to drag it to make beards and hair.

Thank you all for your ideas....I think I will avoid all markers, crayons and pencils as my daughter has the tendency to draw on herself and everything else. My 5 year old has the leapster and my son has his Nintendo. I may get some more things for the flight to France which will be long (10 to 11 hours). We are taking a few flights inside the US next month to visit family so it will break us in . It may also help me with finding the best way to keep them occupied and how they will react to flying in general. I do know that the flight to France will have movies and games.

South of France. I am going in a week.

Will be nice but very crowded. I hope you have a good time .