What do you bring to occupy the kids?

[sunnysavannah]

There are times when even I need to be occupied by something! lol Waiting to disembark can actually be a bit boring. I think I'll bring a deck of uno cards for our kiddos first cruise this fall. They will be 11 & 9.

[CaribbeanCowgirl]

That scavenger hunt is a great idea.. may try that on our next cruise here in a few weeks.

 

Never thought of small playdough either.. maybe making a trip to the store soon!

[monkeyluis]

We usually get them a couple of coloring books & a book to read. On our next cruise we will be flying, so we are taking the iPad mini & nexus 7 & they can each play their own games & watch some movies, & yes they'll have headphones. On the cruise itself, they are always occupied with things to do, whether at the kids club or with us doing something. But there always is some downtime, so we like to have those few extras for them, as I mentioned above.

 

Oh, and taking a couple decks of kids cards comes are always fun. Skip-Bo or UNO. Fluxx and munchkin are also good.

 

For my wife and I we like playing Gloom, Phase 10.

[melthemadhatter]

As a brand new mommy of a 4 week old, I am delighted with all of these ideas. Great thread. We are not cruising any time soon, maybe we'll go to the shore, but these ideas are great for when he gets older!

[chrisc71]

Coloring books and those small boxes of crayons worked for us. Does not take up much room.

[CaribbeanCowgirl]

You can still drop them off at camp carnival and they take them to the buffet. However that is for children 2+... So my 18 month old could not go in until after hour babysitting which means she is in the mdr with me... For a 2 hour dinner service. Not an easy task for a tired kid

[nothriver]

Since my daughter was quite young she has carried her own bag with toys and stuffed animals. She took a portable DVD player once but never again, too heavy. We still travel with one or two stuffed animals, but as others have said, no more toys, just the ipad loaded with kindle books and apps, and a few paperback books, which this trip are magictreehouse books related to our trip. We love that we've traded in a whole bag of travel toys for one slim iPad. (Mean mom - now she carries snacks,etc. !) We do use the tablet on the plane, waiting for embarktion, etc., but NOT in the dining room. My child is almost 8 and needs to learn to have nice dinner conversatiosn with her family.

 

Post it notes used to entertain her for hours, we'd write letters or numbers on them then sort or whatever. Speaking of sorting, we'd waste time by sorting m&m's or skittles, counting, dividing, and eating. I liked those very small activity books (dover?), and other small figures, animals, toys. Anything small and lightweight. We had a vintage set of little little golden books that we took on trips. I'm not above reading books to my kids to entertain them on a plane or in public, me reading has got to be a lot less annoying than my kid fussing, imo.

 

Whoever was looking for the suggestion for a one yr old: when you are seated in the dining room ask for a LOT of spoons. Let your baby play with spoons and toss them on the floor to their hearts content.

[notentirelynormal]

Balloons. They can keep a child busy for quite some time and wear them out. I actually had another poster slam me for this as a "dangerous toy". Seriously! A balloon? I'm not advocating taking them into a public area but in your room it can be quite the fun time for the kid. Small and easy to pack and every kid loves hitting a balloon around a room.

 

For my son and daughter - what they bring to entertain their kids.... me! LOL.

[Mrsdigi]

As a brand new mommy of a 4 week old, I am delighted with all of these ideas. Great thread. We are not cruising any time soon, maybe we'll go to the shore, but these ideas are great for when he gets older!

 

Congratulations! Mine just turned 11 months old yesterday...times flies!

[Athankfulheart]

The "hundred chart" is a new one to me. Great idea!

 

 

For kids under 5 or 6 I would make a picture lotto and small snacks... same idea."Can you find the green triangle?" They get 4 in a row and they get to eat the whole row. Rinse and repeat. All it takes is a baggy with a folded up paper and small, non filling snacks. Homeschool mom here, any opportunity to practice a new skill ;)

[Athankfulheart]

Its been a while since we had a 1yo, but we had 8 of them, so Im sure we did something creative to occupy them - I just cant remember much ! PTSD maybe :p

 

 

One trick that we always used was to keep a pony-o someplace handy on diaper bag, wrist etc . Cloth napkins make handy bibs if you have a way to tie them on. Enter the pony-o or barrette. No need to bring special bibs or spend money on disposables. They have napkins at the buffet as well as the diningrooms.

 

Toddlers LOVE to throw things on the floor. This "phase" doesnt last forever and isn't worth battling. Why not create an activity that would satiate this crazy love ? Perhaps a plastic bucket full of pom-poms or something equally as quiet that cant be thrown far ? Maybe make it your beach bucket so you have a two for one. Meter out the pom-poms from a baggie and teach the toddler to "drop" the pom-pom into the beach bucket below/next to the highchair. Its quiet and on the outside chance that it gets thrown, it probably wouldnt be noticed, let alone hurt someone or knock something down. For really small ones who's aim would make you spend too much time picking them up off the floor, perhaps container such as a coolwhip container with a small hole cut in the lid to feed the pom-poms into. Stack it with another container inside and then you could just switch the lid to the empty one and start the game over again with the pom-poms always having someplace to go.

[Onessa]

Balloons. They can keep a child busy for quite some time and wear them out. I actually had another poster slam me for this as a "dangerous toy". Seriously! A balloon? I'm not advocating taking them into a public area but in your room it can be quite the fun time for the kid. Small and easy to pack and every kid loves hitting a balloon around a room.

In theory the balloon is dangerous because the latex fragments from once the burst could be ingested and suffocate the young child. As is the case with nearly anything, parental supervision whilst playing with the balloon, proper storage of the ballo0n when you are not able to supervise, and proper disposal of the burst balloon mitigate the danger.

[notentirelynormal]

In theory the balloon is dangerous because the latex fragments from once the burst could be ingested and suffocate the young child. As is the case with nearly anything, parental supervision whilst playing with the balloon, proper storage of the ballo0n when you are not able to supervise, and proper disposal of the burst balloon mitigate the danger.

 

Well since I don't advocate leaving small children in the cabin by themselves I would have thought this to be a "no brainer". Any toy can be a danger if not in proper working condition or small children playing alone. Even a pencil or pen. Short of locking the children in a plastic bubble....

[Onessa]

Balloons. They can keep a child busy for quite some time and wear them out. I actually had another poster slam me for this as a "dangerous toy". Seriously! A balloon? . . .

. . . I would have thought this to be a "no brainer". Any toy can be a danger if not in proper working condition or small children playing alone....

You asked, I answered -- don't shoot the messenger. Not all adults are as responsible as you are.

 

If you truly were wondering why you were "slammed", per The Balloon Council's web site:

The balloon industry has worked hard to increase awareness and educate consumers in how properly to use— and most importantly, dispose of — latex balloons.

This nationwide consumer awareness and education campaign began in 1992 when American balloon manufacturers took the lead and began placing prominent choking hazard warning labels on all balloon packaging. Designed to catch the attention of parents, this bold, conspicuously placed label clearly explains to all consumers that young toddlers — who will put anything in their mouths — could choke or suffocate on an un-inflated balloon or balloon fragments. The warning pointedly encourages adults to supervise closely children under six when they are playing with balloons and to remove immediately un-inflated balloons from the area and dispose of balloon pieces."

The Department of Trade and Industry ( UK ) has details of some 10,000 accidents where balloons were involved in one way or another - most of these accidents happened to children under the age of 10.

 

While I use balloons as a means to entertain kids as well, I do appreciate the dangers and do not belittle those dangers.

[notentirelynormal]

I wasn't shooting the messenger - or at least I didn't think I was. I just think that a balloon is not a deadly weapon and the poster I was referring to made reference to the the devastation of the child having one pop when they are playing with it and being traumatized by the experience of it. The poster then commented on the havoc it would create interacting with others not wanting to be involved with a balloon playing child on the ship.

 

No matter what "toy" is given to a child there should be common sense. If you give a balloon to a 3 YO let's hope that there is an adult in the room and the child isn't given the balloon while the parents wander off. Then, let's hope that IF the balloon breaks the parents bend over and pick up the pieces instead of letting a small child clean up after themselves. Like I said, any toy could be considered unsafe if that's the way you want to go.

 

And you are right, I do monitor and check on young children often. If I don't see or hear them (while in my home) for over 5 minutes, I want to know what they are doing. I track them down and make sure all is okay. That said, on a cruise ship, in a small cabin, how could a parent or caregiver not know what the child is doing or hear a balloon popping? No child should be left alone and surely the parents should notice if the balloon breaks and handle it accordingly.

[jaycat]

I am taking the blow up toys to save luggage space. Cheap bowling set give them hours of playtime because you can change pins around. Bubble on the balcony. Dollars store puzzles and coloring a must. Since our cruise is months away, not sure what will interest her at that time.

[flhokie]

In the dining room we ended up using some of the crayola books with markers that only show up on the specific paper, a magnetic princess set and we broke out the DVD player once. Other than that, DD was occupied with the people in our group (2 tables) & little kids at nearby tables.

 

She never used the iPad, books, coloring books or small puzzles/toys we took.

 

In the room she constantly played with the toys we borrowed from the nursery.

[bean24]

I second the bubbles. We used them at sail away and again during the week we would just sit on the balcony and blow bubbles