3.30.2010

Life and a plane trip

We've been fairly consumed by life around here. We had family visiting all of last week and we're headed to Georgia to visit more family next week. This week is our down time, recovering and resting from all the fun had and preparing and packing for all the fun to come. There is no schoolwork going on around here for like a month, at least no organized, mommy directed school work. There's still plenty of reading, drawing, story-writing, dress-up, and history obsessing going on with the kids. Plus we still have Monday School and I'm trying to be a semi-on-top of things teacher for my theater class, but that's not really happening.

Good thing in the midst of all of this I found a gift certificate to a spa that I thought I had lost. It was my baby shower gift (from 2 1/2 years ago) and I finally used it, although I think I enjoyed it more now than I would have then. It was at Zenana Spa and it was amazing. It was utterly frivolous and I could have felt massively guilty and irresponsible going there, but I decided to just relax, enjoy every last moment and appreciate the amazing friends who gave it to me. It really was fabulous and the ridiculous amount of patience I had for crazy kids lasted well into the evening which was quite pleasant too.

If anyone has any great advice or ideas for traveling cross-country with the crew please let me know. We haven't been on a plane since we had a two year old and a baby and that trip we took the direct red-eye flight and they both had ear infections, so we were liberal with the Tylenol. We leave this time in the morning and have two short flights (2+ hours each) with a short layover. Any opinions on what to take on the plane (specific foods, games, books) that would entertain a 6, 4, and 2 year old would be much appreciated.

2 comments:

danc said...

Try The kind of boards you can "erase" your picture and start over (like a magna doodle). Comes in handy when playing tic tac toe and other writting games like "Add to mine" you start the picture by drawing an object and then pass to the next person they add a related object (or not) to yours and you keep going till you can or can't tell what the picture is about. You can even end by telling a shared story about the picture!:)You can also practice your ABC's and numbers. Snack suggestion: nuts or popcorn (no chocolate! it melts and the added caffine is NOT a good thing for confined spaces.:) I also let the kids take turns sitting by the window (if they want to) and they can share quietly what they see and wonder how high up they really are and marvel at what wonderful things God created and how different it all looks like from up so high. Maybe try to draw a picture of what they see ( taking turns). On some planes, there is a video game board on the backs of the seats. It only cost about $5.00 and they can play games for the entire flight. Ask a stewardess if they have age appropriate ones your kids could play.
Hope this helps!
Much Love!
Grandma Darlene

danc said...

MORE HELPFUL HINTS!
Take the magazines on the flight and find all the a b c's in order, Capital letters and lowercase. You can also play "I Spy" on a picture page in the magazine. Try the dollar store! They have activity books and little water sport games they can concentrate on getting the little ringed objects onto the poles using the buttons to push the water . Really cute and inexpensive. Trail mix also works for a snack.