Need ideas for occupying 3-year-old on a 4-hour train ride

[swd12422]

Obviously, the first half hour or so will be so exciting there won't be a problem. It's the rest of the trip that I'm worried about. It's a tour train that goes through the hills, and I'm sure the scenery will be amazing, but I'm not so sure the 3-year-old will want to see THAT much scenery! I'm planning to pack a little bag of stuff to keep him occupied, but am worried that even things like crayons or play-dough will be either too easy to drop/lose pieces of or too messy.

We have a magna-doodle-type thing that we are planning to bring, but it doesn't engage him for very long. I just saw the other thread about games for helping kids learn to read. DS knows his letters already, so I'm thinking that maybe a portable electronic game might be good -- any recommendations? We do not have smart phones or i-Pads or anything we can take with us to download apps or play online; it would need to be hardware and software combined.

[meemee]

honestly a 4 hour train journey is not a long time at all. 

our time just passed so fast. hopefully he is the only child and there are no others. or at least another adult present to help you. our time was spent checking out the train. going to the dining car and sitting there. checking out the bathrooms. checking out where hte luggage are kept. 

then there's snack. and talking to the railway staff. 

[AllisonR]

I don't think 4 hours will be as bad as you think either. Then again, I have 2, so they can entertain themselves pretty well. We just did 4.5 hours (two trains), and it was easy as pie. Seeing train tracks, the schedule, trains arriving and leaving... Getting on train, with them being responsible for their own backpacks. Looking out the window and talking about everything they see. Going to the toilet. Getting something off the snack cart.... at the end getting ready to get off.... 

[LaughingHyena]

Are there tables on the train? If so that makes things a lot easier,

Paper, pens and a few stickers keep DS happy for quite a while, as does plasticine. We made a mat by laminating a sheet of thin card and he's pretty good at keeping the plasticine on the mat. Playdough would be OK but DS is used to having lots of tools with his playdough so we chose to use something different when out and about.

eye spy, we use colours when playing with younger kids.

have pictures of things you might see along the way to cross off.

we have this letter version of go fish http://www.amazon.com/Leap-Frog-Card-Games-Bilingual/dp/B000FQIUFG which both kids have enjoyed. We also use the same cards for memory or old maid.

DSs current favourite is a sort of 20 questions. On person chooses an animal and the rest of us ask questions to try and find out what the animal is.

[swd12422]

I have no idea about tables or how it's set up. I know there is the option to ride inside or outside, so there will likely be a lot of in/out activity. That's another reason I wanted to go beyond crayons and play-dough.

I looked at activity books at the bookstore the other day, and asked DS to look with me. It held his attention for about 3 seconds. He had this look on his face like, "This looks like work. I'm not getting sucked into THAT!" It was stuff like find objects hidden in the picture, look at a picture and find things that start with a certain letter, etc. I thought he'd LOVE it. Nope....

Thanks for the other suggestions; I hope some of them work!

[SynEpona]

Anything with magnets, and no parts that roll :) Magnets help keep toys contained, and if you dont' have roll away toys, you're spared having to go 4 rows up to ask that slightly bored looking passenger if they could just grab that brightly coloured object under their seat ... A small cookie sheet can become an activity table/tray for magnetic things -- think toaster oven size, so it easily fits in a bag, but carry a magnet to the store with you to find one! A lot of the ones we found were not magnetic ... and nothing sticks to them.

If you do have a table, a cup of water with some ice cubes has been my go-to distraction for DS on airplanes, just keep a few napkins handy to wipe up the puddles as it melts. That has always been a good 20 min worth of fun.

DS has done the Malahat train in BC a few times now, once at 6wks (super easy!) and once at 18ish mths when he was fascinated by the scenery racing past, so you should be able to get good mileage from just looking out the windows still with a 3yo. We were planning to take it next summer when we're out there again, but it looks like it's not running :(

If your DS likes trains, bring along Thomas books/train cars. Making your own train do train noises is 5x as fun if you're actually ON a train!

Nothing with batteries or sound effects is my own personal rule for travel toys out side of our personal vehicle ... having spent a flight with someone else's childs' tickle me Elmo once!

WikiStix are fun for travel, they pack up small, and don't need any extra parts to use them ... just a flat surface.