Hobbies And Interests
Card Games
Kids can play card games, such as Crazy Eights, Go Fish, War or Old Maid, on their airplane tray tables. Children can sharpen their intellect by playing Brain Quest, which consists of trivia cards that test a child's knowledge. Versions are made for various school grades.
Game Books
Mad Libs books contain short stories with missing verbs, nouns, adjectives or adverbs. Kids can use the books to create silly stories to share with one another. Another idea is to purchase puzzles or maze books, such as Jennifer A. Ericsson and Beth L. Blair's "The Everything Kids' Puzzle Book: Mazes, Word Games, Puzzles, and More! Hours of Fun!" If your kids enjoy competition, see which one can complete a puzzle or maze first.
Scavenger Hunt
Create a list of items that children can look for during the flight. Have them compete to see who can spot all the items the fastest. Inside the airplane, kids can try to locate such objects as a laptop, briefcase, pillow, blanket, baby and cell phone. Looking out the window, kids can try to find a mountain range, lake, ocean, another airplane and a cloud. On the Lucy Travels website, you can print free airplane scavenger hunt game cards instead of creating your own.
Mini Travel Games
Kids should be able to fit mini travel games into either their pockets or their carry-on luggage. Mini travel games are smaller versions of board games that you can purchase from "big box" stores. Kids may like to play chess, Connect Four or Memory. Kids may also want to bring small electronic games with headphones, such as a Nintendo DS. Make sure you inform your children that at certain times during the flight, their electronic games must be turned off.