Kids on a Plane
There’s a new movie in the US that is supposed to be very scary called “Snakes on a Plane,” about a bunch of snakes that get loose on a plane. In 2002, ten days after we adopted our then 11-month old daughter in China, we boarded a 20-hour nonstop flight from Hong Kong to Chicago with 32 other newly adopted, mostly sick babies on board: way scarier than snakes! Happily for us, our daughter slept the whole way but I realized in that moment that I’d better start designing some lightweight, portable, disposable entertainment for air travel.
Our favorite solution to mid-flight boredom is a series of double-sided puzzles printed from our daughter’s favorite photographs. This may not sound like much but carry one of these in your purse the next time you have to wait somewhere with a child and you will be amazed. If you don’t have children, imagine giving one to a restless niece or nephew to play with in a restaurant. You, my friend, will be proclaimed a hero.
Here’s all you do. Find two pictures your child likes. Print one on each side of a piece of cardstock. We use letter-size because it fits nicely on the tray table on the plane. Using a rotary cutter, cut the cardstock into as many pieces as your child can comfortably handle in a jigsaw puzzle. Try 10-20 pieces for a 3-yr old, 30-40 for a 4-yr old, etc. Put the pieces in a plastic bag with a zipper-type closure and you are ready to go. Pictures with lots of similar objects are harder than ones with lots of easily differentiated objects. The best part of this is that if you lose a puzzle piece in transit it’s no great loss. You can print up a new one when you get home.
October 4th, 2006 at 9:21 am
oooooohhhh, you are clever.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
best kind of project – simple and clever
October 4th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
That is such a great idea. Fun and easy to do!
October 4th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
OK, this is prob a dumb question, but I’m new to the crafty world…what is a rotary cutter? (Perhaps it goes by a different name where I am…) Jennifer
October 4th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
lovely idea! one other idea which we have used on our trips across the atlantic to europe is a big box of bandaids. (plasters, self stick bandages) they are not nearly as lovely as your idea, but with the extra long trip, you can really get a lot of mileage out of them. it is a bit wasteful for my New england yankee upbringing – but it kept mine quiet and happy for some time!
October 4th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Brilliant, I say!
October 4th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
OOHHHH. I am going to do this in preperation for our 2-1/2 year old grandson’s visit. Great, great idea.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:53 am
Great idea!
October 5th, 2006 at 3:56 am
I love it! I’m going to do this right now and keep one in my purse for my 3 year old for when we’re at a restaurant.
October 6th, 2006 at 11:10 am
This is GREAT! I will use this next time we travel by plane…especially as a distraction when they are showing a movie on the plane that is too scary or completely inappropriate for the age of our children. THAT MAKES ME CRAZY/LIVID! We wouldn’t ever choose to let our children watch an R rated movie but then somtimes on an airplane we find ourselves a captive audience with our children with one showing just feet from our faces. Even if we don’t let them listen on headphones and attempt to distract them they can’t help but see the, often violent, images on the screen. RRRGH! Sorry. I couldn’t help but rant about this difficult situation. Yes, I’ve complained to the airlines.
One of our favorite in-flight activities for several years running now is to decorate the barf bag (unused, of course) in the pocket in front of you with stickers and markers that we bring along. We give it as a gift to the person picking us up at the airport where we land and it’s always good for a laugh!
October 6th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Jennifer- A rotary cutter is kind of like pizza cutter, but much sharper. It’s often used in quilting to make those nice even long cuts. Way faster than scissors, although, scissors would work in this project as well. Here is a link to a rotary cutter:
http://www.fabricuk.com/images/specials//MPCOLOR1_LARGE.jpg
October 8th, 2006 at 4:03 am
I suppose if you don’t want to waste printing ink, you could just get a nice color picture from a magazine, glue it to cardboard…and away you go?
I have just created a lovely birthday card for afuve year old girl… it’s a blank jigsaw puzzle I bought at a craft shop for about $4. I used two texta colors to draw a picture. I think she’ll like the suspense of having to assemble it before she reads the message.
When i was living in Europe, many photo stores allowed you to get a print made up into a jigsaw puzzle. tragically in australia, I haven’t found anyone who can do this. i thin it’d be fantastic to get your favorite photo turned into a jigsaw. I suppose you could do a less professional-looking job on the printer at home.