Travel and waiting
Quiet activities for planes, trips and waiting rooms
Waiting is hard when you are small. A few tricks in your bag can turn a long queue or flight into something manageable. Here are ideas that work in tight spaces, and how to use a calm game well when you need one.
Pack a small “busy bag”
- Sticker sheets and a little notebook
- Painter’s tape to stick and peel off the tray table
- A few new or forgotten small toys, wrapped in paper to unwrap
- Board books with flaps
- A snack in a container with lots of small pieces
No-kit games
- I spy, with colours instead of letters
- Finger puppets drawn on your fingertips
- Whispered songs and clapping rhymes
- Counting things out of the window
When you need a calm screen moment
Glowbug opens silent, so it won’t surprise the people around you. Turn sound on only with headphones made for small children.
Pick a session of 5, 10 or 15 minutes. It slows down and ends gently on its own, which makes handing the phone back easier. Leaving Child Mode needs a two-second press-and-hold, so little fingers can’t wander into other apps.
Questions parents ask
Does Glowbug work offline on a plane?
Glowbug can be installed to your home screen from the browser. Open it once with a connection before you travel, then check it in flight mode at home before you rely on it.
Is it silent?
Yes. Glowbug always starts with sound off, and a grown-up turns it on.