We're not really a "screen time" family, but we are realistic about how helpful quality educational programming can be when you are desperate: trying to get dinner on the table, trying to survive in a traffic jam, and most of all, trying to get through a flight with a toddler!
Our son Anthony has been on five round trip flights in his first two years, each one getting more and more difficult as he gets bigger and more active! Our most recent flight was to visit my husband in Wisconsin who was there for several weeks on a business trip: my very first flight alone with Anthony.
What got us through:
1) The grace of God.
2) The Target One Spot and its treasure trove of cheap toys that hold interest for even 2-3 minutes at a time.
3) Snacks, snacks, snacks.
4) Letting my almost-exclusively-sippy-cup
-kid have one of his coveted bottles.5) Our Amazon Kindle Fire.
My husband Chris and I have a family iPad, which is what we used for flights 1-3. However, lately Anthony has insisted on touching the screen and holding it in his hands, and so the iPad became an adults-only toy! Right before our 4th flight, our longest yet (to Hawaii), I bought an Amazon Kindle Fire for him and it was the best money I ever spent! I bought a foamy case for it that protects it from drops, gives Anthony a place to hold it without touching the screen, and fits PERFECTLY in the magazine holder in the seat in front of us - at least on both Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
A tablet without a data plan? How is that possible? The Kindle Fire uses Wi-Fi, and we have Amazon Prime (another post soon soley devoted to how amazing Amazon Prime is) which allows you to download a certain number of TV shows and movies to watch offline for free. So before every flight, I made sure to download a few Daniel Tigers
, a few Sesame Streets
, and a movie for myself in case he fell asleep (WHICH HE DID ON THE FLIGHT HOME! PRAISE JESUS!).
There are also a bunch of free apps you can download that don't need Wi-Fi, like this coloring one, this alphabet one
, and this cars and trucks one
.What about sound? I bought Anthony a pair of kid friendly headphones, and he does like them sometimes, but he's not a huge fan of things on his head (hats, sunglasses, headphones) much to our dismay. Thankfully, he is still super interested in the muted version so he was captivated even when he refused the 'phones. The thing I love about the headphones we bought is that I am able to use them too, when he fell asleep (see above, biggest miracle in my life so far). But, I have kind of a small head so that might not work for everyone!
For reading, honestly I don't love the Kindle Fire. You can download ebooks onto them and read them, but I don't like the glare you get when you read outside (aka poolside) nor the risk to the Kindle if it falls into the pool...for reading, I prefer the Kindle Paperwhite
which has ZERO glare, is super lightweight, and fits perfectly in a Ziploc gallon-sized bag for when I want to sit in the pool, sip an adult beverage, and read some chick lit
. But maybe a post about the Paperwhite someday; just know that you CAN read on the Kindle Fire if you want to.If you are traveling with a kiddo, I can't recommend this enough. I've even seen used Kindles on Craigslist for next to nothing! You can restore factory settings and set them up with your own Amazon account, you don't have to buy just from Amazon...just a helpful hint! :-)
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