Are you scared of taking your toddler on his or her first trip on an airplane? I was! What do you pack? What will he do on the airplane for four hours? What should I do if she has a meltdown? Now there are many resources online to help parents prepare for airplane travel with their toddlers including my post on Traveling By Air and Tips for Getting Through Airport Security with Kids. But both of these posts and many others that I have read online are tips for parents. It left me wondering, are there resources designed and directed to the toddler?
The Shae By Air DVD Toolkit is exactly one of these products. The DVD has three short videos; a video for parents, the main instructional video for the toddler, and a special music video. I suggest that parents run through all three videos before sitting down with their child. When you do sit down with her, show her the other items that come with the DVD including a specially designed luggage tag, a toddler oriented packing list, and the good little traveler stickers.
I didn't think my son would latch on to the instructional video so I chose to show him the music video first. He loves airplanes (what toddler boy doesn't!) and the video includes clips of different types of airplanes as well as planes taking off and landing. He loved it! So when I turned on the instructional video, his attention was peaked and he was ready to absorb the material.
The best part of the instructional video is that it's filmed from a child's perspective and everything is shot from their height and eye level. Shae, the little girl in the video, follows the packing list and fills her travel bag with her special items. She's shown waiting (and behaving) on line to check in luggage, walking through airport security, and boarding the plane. The rest of the video highlights takeoff, landing and how to have fun during the plane ride. One of the best parts of the video shows Shae kicking the seat in front of her - something almost all children do on an airplane. Shae quickly learns that this bothers the woman sitting in this seat and is then shown sitting nicely and quietly.
My son loved the video and when it was over he ran upstairs to pack his bag!
Shae by Air is really a great video parents can use to introduce airplane travel to their young ones. You can also check out other online resources that they provide on the Good Little Traveler website.
