Bare minimum toys for 17 month old, 1 week holiday, 3 hour flight.

[toddlerbob]

DS loves animals, cars and playing football so here is what I am intending to pack for a weeks holiday with a 3 hour flight.

Okay I've got it down to

Fisher price doodle pad for paperless drawing
Sticker album and 3 sheets of stickers (cars, fish and farmyard animals)
2 board books that have pieces that lift out and are thus sort of puzzles/jigsaws (zoo and farm)
The little shovel and fork off the front of the fimbles magazine a couple of months ago.
A couple of matchbox cars
hollow plastic ball

Anyone got any suggestions about where I could be going wrong, or something that would be better? I also intend to press into action anything else I find en route. When we did a 1 hour flight last month he spent the whole flight playing with 3 plastic cups our water came in, then they became bath toys at our destination.

Ds was 14m in our last trip and I would say the toys are OK, I would get a big bib if you are to feed him in the plane and extra clothes for him and you in your handbag. Anything he can chew on at take off and landing can save himself a lot of ear pain (a bottle or a dummy will do).

My dd loves baby catalogues (Blooming Marvelous, JMB, PHP, Urchin, etc) so I took some in hand luggage and some in suitcase for the retun flight. She talks to the babies, can rip away at the catalogue and I don't need to stop her. Best of all I then left the ripped-up catalogues on the plane!

Balloons for when you're there (probably not a good idea on the flight!) - a pack takes up no room in the luggage & they provide hours of fun!

Also what about a select few plastic animals - they always go away with us - farm animals, dinosaurs etc.

dd loves plastic cups on planes too! Last time we also spent a good half hour looking at (and tearing) the in-flight mag too.

When we go out/away though I usually just take a tin (an old milk tin) full of odds and ends - free toys out of cereal packets, jar lids, things to bang with, that sort of thing - so that it doesn't matter if we lose anything. This was after she dropped her favourite toy at take-off the time before so it rolled down the plane and we did lose it!

Might have to get one of those drawing things though.

I would bring one matchbox car and buy everything else there. Things will be cheaper and you can use it as "bribery" when needed (ie delayed flight, bad weather, full restaurant etc. etc.).

Hi, Im supposed to be packing for our week away with a 2 year old. you all sound so organised. I do have a sticker book. A friend told me that if you're very organised you should have a different toy for each hour of the journey - she's flying off to the states! We've got a 3 hour flight and Ive got a sticker book, some crayons, and a couple of books. Not very imaginative.
toddlerbob - where did you get the non-crayon fisher price drawing thing? is it very big and expensive??

We bought a small plastic tea set in South Africa once we got there, and it did as a beach toy, bath toy and general play toy for 3 weeks! We also used it on the flight home, when dd1 (then aged 19 months)used it with her food for real.

stacking cups are good on hols; took our set away last week and all 3 (5, 3, 1) played with them in house and in the bath. Take up no room too. Not so good on the plane perh (rolling in the aisles etc)

Definately stacking cups. The ikea ones are a big hit with 15 month old ds. We have a great inflatible ball that was free with a teletubbies comic a few months ago (comic lasted minutes!!). Also bubbles. These and a couple of books and cars were our holiday stand-bys.

On a slightly different note - we returned from holiday on Saturday and ds was totally overwhelmed by all his toys. I've resolved that next time we'll put them all away before we go on holiday and bring things out one by one when we return.