How to Entertain a Baby when Travelling by Train

The summer season is at its height. It’s high time to leave the dusty city for the granny’s village house. But it takes exactly 24 hours by train for us to accomplish. How to entertain the little one when traveling?

Going into this issue, first of all I bought our 1-year-old son his favourite toy – a car. And hid it – until our departure. So, for the first half an hour the child will have what to do. But what will follow next? How many toys should be taken to spend 24 hours with comfort? And to be able to fit everything into one, big but not dimensionless, bag? Especially, if there are already 10 weighty pots with powdered baby milk… Obviously, one will not manage just with ordinary toys. There should be something lighter, more compact… and, at the same time, lasting for a long time and developing…

The examination of the nearest super-market in search for developing things for the period of travelling brought some good results. Here is my catch:

1. A set of cocktail straws . 45 cents
2. Skewers for sandwiches. 30 cents.
3. A tape measure-trinket. 85 cents.
4. A set of children’s stickers (20 sheets – 2 dollars and 20 cents).

It seems to be what we need!

I cut some of the straws into shorter pieces and put them into a jar for the detergent which happened to have a lid with holes. The skewers fit the case for an electronic thermometer. I also decided to take crayons: a nice pencil case was found for them – a case for swimming glasses with a tricky lock. Grand total: all the toys, including the two cars (1 new and 1 old but very loved one), 2 books and a little souvenir – wooden figures on a spring (a present from the aunt) perfectly fit into a tiny plastic bag! Excellent! I am very happy with my buying and I hope Arseny will also like what I have prepared for him.

The day of our departure comes. 6 o’clock in the morning. The child, naturally, is sleeping. I feed him from a bottle while he is sleeping, turn on the DVD player with cartoons, tenderly massage his palms, fingers, hands… “Awake, my dear”… In an hour and a half we will go to the station by taxi and then a long waiting will follow. A 1-year-old baby is interested in everything. Ladonizhsky Station in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, is so beautiful. You cannot resist from climbing everywhere there… Thus, by the time of the departure of the train Arseny is completely tired and ready to cry. It was so up to the point to have a new car at my fingertips. Clasping the toy to his breast, Arseny fell asleep in my arms… And having awoken in an hour, he started to explore, at first, the carriage and, then, the toys prepared by me with new strength. Here is the rating of his preferences:

1st place – the favourite car, of course (Arseny loves everything that has got wheels )

2nd place – stickers! Yes, exactly, stickers is something! Almost weightless, not occupying any space in the bag but able to keep the child’s attention for a very long time. We started playing with them 10 times. Of course, it was almost always me who was sticking them to, the best variant, the baby And Arseny was taking these glittering pieces of sticky paper off himself trying to stick them to something, too. If I had to draw his attention away from some undesirable activity (for example, from wheeling his car on the floor of the carriage), the stickers worked marvelously!

3rd place – cocktail straws in a jar. To turn off the lid, to pour everything out onto the sleeping berth with one movement and then, one by one, to put all of them into the jar, then again to take them out, to put them into the holes in the lid, to gnaw, to bend, to sort out and to finger them… The little one can do it almost for hours on end … ot at least for 20 minutes – it is already an excellent result for such a simple toy!

4th place – pencils, or to be more exact – a pencil case with pencils. A very interesting thing which was being examined for some 15 minutes

5th place – food! A juicy green apple, a fresh cucumber – and not in cut pieces as always but as a whole, with the rind – Arseny got them in such shapes for the first time in his life. The result – 2 times for 20 minutes for the mummy to have an opportunity to eat peacefully.

All the rest of the prepared toys were also useful except for the skewers – I was keeping them for some “unforeseen circumstances” and, finally, did not use them at all. So, we will have something to explore on the way back home.

Thus, it seems travelling with a 1-year-old baby is not a super tiresome activity. Especially, if you properly prepare for it . In a months, there will be a train for us again – does anyone have any other ideas how a child can be entertained when travelling? We are always happy to get your comments!

Natalie

Illustrations to the Article

Photos by the author

For the Russian version of this article please, visit here.

Next time you will learn what developing toy can one made for his child of 20+ months old…