I wrote a post earlier about some of the things I generally take when traveling with young children. For this trip, I expanded on the activity section. I usually just break out the crayons and markers and let them color or draw in a coloring/activity book while we are in the airport waiting for the next flight. This time since the layovers are much longer, I don't know that the kids will enjoy the activity books for 4 to 9 hours!
The activity books are still a great idea though so I printed out some free coloring pages from this site. This is a great website because they have coloring pages from almost every conceivable kids movie/cartoon character that you would want. My kids love Tom and Jerry, Disney Princesses, Ben 10, Hello Kitty, and Hamtaro to name a few. I printed double-sided coloring pages to minimize the number of sheets of paper I used.
I also printed out some hidden pictures, dot-to-dot, mazes, handwriting practice worksheets, letter tracing worksheets, etc. You can do a search online and find lots of these printable activities. If you put the activities in plastic sheet protectors and place them in a binder, the kids can use dry erase markers and do the activities over and over again. I had activity books for the kids when we were in the states, but somehow they didn't make it into our suitcases when we moved. I plan on putting together new books for the kids when we get back from our trip. These binders are great for traveling in the car or keeping the kids quiet at doctor's offices or church.
I thought it would be fun for the kids to play some games. I am bringing UNO and a memory game. I went to a website called Education.com and found more fun games. This website has lots of free fun worksheets, games, and activities for all different grade levels. You do need to register to access the printables. I printed out a couple of board games for the kids that I thought they would enjoy playing. I printed one called Monster Mix-up. I also found one called Penny Stackers. They had a wide variety of fun printable games.
I made some home-made tangrams. A tangram is a puzzle consisting of 7 flat shapes that you use to put together given only a silhoutte or outline. The pieces cannot overlap and you have to use all 7 pieces. Check out this website to make your own tangram and to print some puzzles to solve. I think my oldest (6 yrs.) would enjoy trying to solve some simple tangram puzzles or maybe making his own creations. I guess we'll see if he likes them.
For the younger kids, I just printed out shapes in different sizes and colors...circles, ovals, squares, triangles. You can construct pictures from these shapes...sun, bird, flowers, etc. I thought the younger kids might enjoy playing with the shapes and/or watching me create some things for them. I found the template and ideas here. This is the same website that had the tangrams.
I didn't want to haul a bunch of dolls around so I made the girls some paper dolls. I printed the dolls and clothes on old worksheets. I used the paper doll graphics that were included with the Scrapbook Factory software that I bought awhile back. I think the girls will like the paper dolls. I loved playing with paper dolls when I was a kid. When I was younger, I liked changing out the clothes. When I got older, I made my own people and designed my own clothes. I remember that I spent hours playing with paper dolls. I even made my paper dolls their own cardboard house...fun times! Maybe things were simpler back then. I don't know. I still think paper crafts are really cool. I hope my kids will think so too.
I also have a little baggie of back-up toys. I saved some little toys that came in the cereal boxes we bought. I also have some mini rubics cubes that were a party-favor from a friend's birthday party. I have a toy telescope that came in a kids meal. I have a couple of other miscellaneous toys. I generally hate these little types of toys, but I save them for party goodie bags, to give out at Halloween along with candy, or for trips. Kids like having new 'toys' to play with.
Despite all my preparations, I confess that I finally broke down and went to a toy store and bought 2 sets of Polly Pockets for the girls and an Omnitrix Ben 10 toy for my son. I have them hidden away. I plan on breaking them out as a last resort if all my other resources fail. I went to Kidzstation in Pasaraya Grande. I'm not positive, but I think Kidzstation was on the 6th floor in the back. The front of the floor is mostly children's clothing. They had alot of toys marked down 50% so I was able to get all the toys for the same price I would have paid for them back in the US. I think most imported goods in Jakarta are marked up about 50%, toys included...like legos, barbies, etc.
Well, we are off tomorrow. With the layovers, we won't reach our destination for some 40+ hours. I'm going to try and add a few posts while we are on vacation. When I get a chance, I'll blog about how the trip went with the kids. I'm expecting the worst, but hopefully it won't be as bad as I think it will be. Wish us luck! I think next go around, I'm going to see if we can bypass the company travel booking service and book our own trips to minimize the amount of time we are just waiting around for the next leg of the journey.
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