Best Travel Toys for Pre-Schoolers from That Holiday Mum

26/07/2024

Best Travel Toys for Pre-Schoolers from That Holiday Mum

Having just returned from, six weeks travelling with our pre-schooler (he turned 4 while we were away), my mind was very much on portable toys that would have enduring appeal for the length of our travels.  We had 12 stops and 3 flights, so the small amount of entertainment we could bring for him had to work really hard!  When thinking about travel toys, I tend to break them down into three groups:  Table Toys (which work for in-flight and eating out), Entertainment for Everyone (so the whole family can get involved) and Outdoor Games.  This is what we packed for our most recent trip:

Table Toys 

Something to keep his attention at the dinner table and on a flight is crucial for us!  Colouring and stickers are holiday staples for our toy bag, but this year we elevated it with the OMY Painting pages.  I loved being able to offer him some painting to work on but without the stress of the mess.  We have used (and loved) the Magneti books for travel before but needed something more portable this year.  Having the smaller storyboard version worked so well for in-flight entertainment.  Something else we found worked well for concentration, and calm was a seek-and-find picture book and a sewing/threading game something like the ‘Peg Book’ is great as it is easy to pack and there’s plenty of projects to complete.

Entertainment for Everyone

Not only is it nice to be able to play together, but family games can also be crucial to pass the time when you experience delays or bumps in the road when travelling.  Things happen, and we always find it better not to fight it and make the most of a bad situation!  We have been using this wooden memory game for the last few years, and our pre-schooler is getting so good at it that he often beats us now!  We also used Top Trump-style card games a lot while we were travelling because they are so portable and engaging, another great travel friendly game is the Oceans memory snap and match game’

Outdoor Games

Perhaps the hardest one to pack ‘small’ for! The beach, we found  Scrunch buckets to be great and pack to almost nothing, they will be a family favourite for the next few years!  We also got lots of mileage out of the brand's Quoits game (although my own hand-eye coordination rendered me fairly useless at it compared to my 4-year-old).  One delight for me has been seeing him get to grips with and use his Hoppstar digital camera.  This tiny (and oh-so-cute) camera has allowed him to unleash his creative side and start to have some agency over the memories he wants to capture on holiday.  I hope he will love the photos he has taken in years to come, as much as I love them now.

Want to see more of Chloe and her family's trip? Check out her Instagram page here

 

A Binky is a hop and a skip of sheer joy.

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