we are off on holiday - help me pack, and shop!

[silverfrog]

The countdown has started - 2 weeks today we are off to California for 12 days.

I am making endless lists, as obviously the smallest forgotten thing could end up being a nightmare.

However, more importantly () I am compiling shopping lists!

Dd1 is 3 and ASD - what woud you have as top of your list for toys/gadgets/books/equipment that just aren't available over here (or are, but are twice the price!)

oh, and tips for the plane journey would be helpful too - haven't taken dd1 on a plane for a couple of years now...

baby bumblebee DVDs

if DD is into Dora/Diego they will have loads of the books and toys for at most half the price.

tell me more about baby bumblebee - have heard of them. Dd not a huge tv watcher, but I'm trying to encourage it so i can have a bit of a rest every so often

they are good for teaching language - they show clips of kids doing stuff - so you would get 5 or six clips of kids stroking animals/cuddly toys, which some tasteful classic music in the background ,and the word "stroke" repeated several times. Very simple and very repetitive but not too annoying for parents. They have some for nouns, some for verbs, etc.

sounds good - just the type of thing I'm having to do with dd atm.

Right, on the list they go

have you got a portable DVD player ? It is a must for DS journies. Or a bag of tiny things that will each provide 10 mins distraction time (easy in my case, as DS will love even a pen top or a tiny toy doll)

agree re Babybumblebee. The numbers one taught my autistic DS to count and the words ones are great too

they soun fab - dd can count (by rote) and we're working on adding in some meaning/relevance. SHe has a coupl eof Maisy letters'countind dvds, but htey're not great - will keep an eye out for them, thanks.