The summer holidays have officially started and outdoor play is, hopefully, what it is all about. Six weeks can seem like a long time and trying to fill the days with endless activities and days out can be hard but a few versatile travel toys can really help your children get creative without moaning that they are bored after 10 minutes. The great thing with travel toys is that they can easily be moved from inside to outside, the sun to shade and taken with you on trips to keep them entertained either whilst travelling or when out and about.
Here I have created a round up of some of our favourite travel toys covering all ages from 2 to teens. I hope you find something that you think your child will like.
AlphaBee
The AlphaBee is a really popular travel toy from Learning Resources who specialise in educational fun. The AlphaBee is aimed at children aged 2 and over and consists of a bee shaped carry case that contains 40 letters, numbers and shapes as well as 3 double sided activity cards. The handle makes it easy for the child to carry with them too.
The children can practise matching up the pieces to the cards and then, once they get more familiar with their letters and numbers they can start creating their own words, patterns or number lines. The great thing about the AplhaBee is that is comes in this lovely carry case that is easy and light enough for the child to carry themselves, meaning it is the perfect game for on the go. It is ideal for traveling, nights away or even to taking to restaurants or other events where you need to entertain the child but don’t want to rely on technology. The AlphaBee retails at £18.50 and is a great educational toy that can grown with your child as they learn from ages 2 to 5.
Dantoy BBQ
The Dantoy BBQ is the perfect summer travel toy. It gives your child the opportunity to role play being head chef at their very own BBQ and as all the accessories fit nicely with the BBQ that doubles as a carry case they set up anywhere they like. The set includes 6 hot coals, a burger, bun, lettuce, tomato, cheese slice hot dog, hot dog bun, tomato sauce, spatula and tongs. It is aimed at children aged 2 and over.
The Underwater explorer boat
The Underwater Explorer Boat is also from the Learning Resources and is aimed at children aged 3 and over. It is a brilliant summer toy as it can be used in water stations or paddling pools to help your little one explore items under water. It has a clear plastic bottom with built in magnifying glass so that they can examine a variety of objects in more detail and get their scientific brains working. As well as having the magnifying glass that promotes STEM play it also has a moving steering wheel and propeller’s to get their imagination going too.
Once the summer has passed this can also become an indoor water toy for bath time fun. The Underwater Explorer Boat retails at £14.50.
Sand and Water Fine Motor Tools
These are brilliant if your little one has a sand and water table. The sand and water fine motor tools are bright and colourful and help your child explore how to make different patterns, move sand and transfer liquids using different methods. They are small and light weight to make a great travel toy for beach days or even when going a way for the night for bath time play.
As they say in the name they are good for helping improve the fine motor skills of children whilst also sparking an interest in STEM play. Using these tools will also help your child strengthen the muscles needed for writing so have long term benefits as well as being short term boredom busters.
Sand Baking Kit
Whether it is fun in the sand pit at home or a beach day you are packing for, your child will love this Sunny Patch 7 piece Sand Baking Kit by Melissa & Doug.
It contains
- 3 different sized shell-shaped measuring cups,
- an octopus whisk,
- a crab mixing spoon,
- the mixing bowl that doubles as the container and
- the turtle lid that doubles as a sifter!
Your little one will have so much fun sifting, mixing, pouring and “baking” sand pies and once finished storage is really easy at it all fits neatly back inside the mixing bowl ready for your next beach adventure. The Sand Baking Kit retails for £14.50 and is suitable for children aged 3 and over. If you don’t have a sand pit however, this still works really well as a water toy.
Kidnoculars
For those children that are a little bit older (5 plus) we have found these really impressive award winning kidnoculars extreme from Learning Resources. They are focus free binoculars with dual eyepiece for easy viewing. They have 3 times magnification with built in kid safe headphones meaning they can not only watch the birds from afar but also hear them too.
These are perfect travel toys for exploring the parks and the countryside as well as being used whilst traveling to look out of the window. The kidnoculars are sure to offer hours of fun but will also encourage STEM learning and promote an interest in nature and the world around them.
A kite
Kites are fun for the whole family and they make great travel toys. Obviously you can’t play with them in transit but they fold up pretty small and can be used in almost all open air spaces from parks to gardens, sea fronts to fields and are brilliant for encouraging children to reconnect with nature and spend time in the great outdoors. If you want to add some extra fun to your kite flying then why not have a go at using one of the Huckleberry Red Kite’s from The Scouts, to make your own kite and then check how well it flys.
Epic Cereal Box Creations Book
For the arts and crafts lovers we have this awesome Epic cereal Box Creations book that comes with instructions on how to make 20 different creations from cereal boxes. And to ensure you can actually make these things it also comes with 30 magic corners.
The magic corners are a brilliant invention as they ensure your crafts stay together just as you intend them to with no more faffing with glue and sticky tape. Plus they are made from recycled plastic too.
Hydroclash
Encouraging those over 7 to step away from the TV or their latest piece technology can be much harder but we think that the HydroClash will certainly help. The Hydroclash is fab for summer play, getting them to run around and burn off some steam and if unlucky, they will also get wet and cool off too!
The aim of the Hydroclash is to take it in turns trying to hit the other player on the provided vest with a wet bullet using the provided sling shot. You have to be fast to avoid getting wet. Great for those that are competitive and like things that are similar to nurf fights. Just remind them to wear the safety goggles!
Kanoodle Duplexity
For those that are older still, (8 plus), but who are maybe less energetic and prefer puzzles then this handy travel game is great for indoor or outdoor fun.
Kanoodle Duplexity comes in a handy travel case and contains 100 double sided challenge cards and 28 magnetic puzzle pieces. The aim of the game is to recreate the pattern on the challenge card using the magnetic strips but as both ends of the strip must match the card it is harder that it sounds.
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