Help Wanted: Long Haul Travel With Kids!

We are thrilled to announce that we've been chosen to be a BlueStone Blogger and will be heading over there next week to check it out. 

For now though, I need your help. Our train journey is over 6 hours and involves 2 changes so I really need some ideas for entertainment for Carson on the way. Curve ball... it has to be in line with the following, which makes it a bit more difficult:

> Carson is on the autistic spectrum. 
He can lose interest in something very quickly, unless it's the ipad or something number based - in which case he'll be obsessed. I can't listen to numbers or minutes or percentages or whatever for over 6 hours though and the ipad battery certainly won't last that long. Think about my own sanity and help me mix it up a bit, please!

> It must be light/not bulky.
As we're not driving, we'll be hauling luggage on and off trains several times there and back. I can't have a suitcase dedicated to entertainment alone.

> If it can double up as something useful - awesome.
I don't really know what I'm thinking here. An interactive lunchbox or something? Afterall, I'm going to need lunch and snacks for this journey too. 

I've already nailed the luggage bit as he adores the Trunki that his Nin and Grandad bought for him a couple of years ago. As you can tell by his face, we should be all smiles when it comes to waiting for a train connection - phew!



I will be crediting any comments in a follow up post so if you have any suggestions and would like me to link back to you in anyway - just let me know in the comments below. I know a couple of you have tweeted me already which is a fantastic start..

Any help whatsoever will be hugely appreciated, I can't wait to read your advice, THANK YOU!

8 comments:

  1. Congrats on your trip - definitely pack the ipad for emergencies - try and book a table window seat so you'll get a plug - would earphones work? How about a numbers sticker book?

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  2. how about a colouring book and crayons and maybe a small puzzle.

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  3. Tricky - one of my kids is Autistic (I'm also Autistic, so is hubby), but I've only ever traveled long-haul on my own and the boy is dandy with long trips in the car as long as he has the iPad...although we do hear all about the million different specifications of various models of cars (current special interest).

    I'd say the usual colouring book or some sort of building toy suitable for travel - nothing fiddly like Lego that'll end-up all over, get him to try to spot landmarks while in the air, inflight fims, and iPad for some of the trip...your kid likely earns 'spoons' from the iPad so alternate use rather than restricting it only to the start of the trip. Whatever stimming toys you can think of too to avoid meltdowns, even if just something like a Tangle Therapy toy to stim with while he's doing something else.

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  4. An I Pad is always great to take with you when traveling. Theres plenty of different games you can get, not to mention plenty of movies and tv. How about a handheld games console such as the DS, you can have hours of fun on those x

    themakeupjunkiesdiary.blogspot.co.uk

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  5. We have been travelling with little man since he was 2 months old. I would say he is an expert traveller, and we usually take a portable DVD player with lots of DVDs, a kindle loaded with new games, films and cartoons to watch, a few reading books and colouring books. It keeps him entertained on the flight to Brazil (over 12h) and also on our car trip to south of France (over 15h!) x

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  6. its very good idea, traveling with my kids its always nightmare :)

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  7. You can buy a whole bunch of different back up batteries for devices including the iPAD this one is a Samsung http://www.amazon.co.uk/30000mAh-Battery-Charger-Portable-Samsung/dp/B00E1UDFHK and is £13.99 just an example might prolong the iPAD use.

    Loom Bands, simple crafts origami, alphabet games, it's difficult though!

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  8. The last long trip I did with 3 kids in the back was done at night. For us it worked well. Leaving about 2am meant the kids were very very sleepy and fell asleep pretty much as soon as they got in the car. We arrived about Breakfast time. Kids were full of energy but with a place such as Bluestone you will find you can catch up on lost sleep in the 1st day.

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