Babytravelbox- these are magical travel boxes. Why magical? Because when traveling with children, they will help you pass the time cheerfully on the road and on vacation, give you precious moments of peace, and your kids - good mood and new knowledge. What toys to take with you on the road? Don’t forget pencils and coloring books, a typewriter, and something else to read... We tried to analyze the hobbies of our children and the children of friends and put together the optimal set in which every child will find a lot of interesting things. And you won’t need to run around the shops and then stuff it all into your suitcases)
Our sets differ in content for kids different ages, as well as for girls and boys. In each set you will find instructions for filling the set; we placed each set in a convenient backpack that the baby can carry himself.
I recently wrote a post about traveling with children, but in general I talked about how we managed to do it with three kids.
Today I would like to do useful post for everyone who dares to travel with children.
On the way back from Anapa, we spent almost two days shaking on the train, and we were not the only people on the train who were traveling with children.
The most popular and simple entertainment is to play a cartoon on your child’s laptop and let him sit and watch.
I personally have nothing against cartoons; I show them to children myself, but it’s obvious that it’s still highly undesirable for a two-year-old child to watch more than forty minutes.
What to do the rest of the time? And is it possible to carry it out with real benefit for the baby?
Let's gather together " magic suitcase joy" for a child on a trip.
If I go somewhere with a child, I always prepare for the fact that I will have to entertain him, so I take toys with me.
Most best option- buy new toys and books for the trip and show them to the child only on the road.
What to take for a child six months to two years old:
1. Baby slings with toys
A very convenient thing for traveling, they only take up space on your neck.
My favorite beads are made up of knitted beads with small knitted toys.
Little children love to chew them and crush them in their little hands. You can order from any craftswoman you like on the Internet.
2. Children's book with waterproof pages
Nowadays they make wonderful children's toy books for little ones.
We had several such indestructible books with wonderful illustrations.
In our favorites, the cardboard base is applied to a polymer base. Warm floors for children's rooms are also made from this material. It's very difficult to chew this one off. This is important for parents of baby beavers who violently chew ordinary cardboard books.
There are options made of fabric or completely waterproof. You need to choose something that will captivate your baby.
3. “Quiet” musical educational toy
Almost all children like light and sound toys.
For example, a completely win-win form is a telephone with buttons and sounds. They are specially made quiet for children, so they will not disturb passengers.
I always take educational toys that have a lot of all sorts of bells and whistles - rustling toys, rattles, nozzles.
All these “treasures” can be put in a soft, bright backpack or a children's handbag with drawstrings. Kids love to take out and put back different objects, so the handbag can become a separate toy.
What to take for a child from two to five years old:
There is more room for imagination here. The child can already be captivated by some spiritually beneficial activities.
1. Coloring books and washable crayons. Sticker books
Ideally, the crayons will be in some kind of plastic box. You can put them in a small food container.
Why not markers? It’s possible, but even washable ones can leave too bright marks, and the caps get lost very easily.
It's easier with crayons - they are soft and dry.
Another great form of entertainment is sticker books.
You can take a sticker book where you need to stick on assignments. Or you can take stickers and an empty album separately.
Let the child make “collages” himself.
2. Children's lotto and small puzzles
There is also a lot of room for imagination here - I like most of all the wooden puzzles on a backing, from which you need to put together a picture.
Insert puzzles are suitable for smaller children. It's easier there - just choose the size.
On a trip, you can take a plastic lotto with animals or fruits and vegetables.
It may not be possible to keep your child occupied for an hour, but fifteen to twenty minutes is quite possible to sit through this exciting game.
3. Children's plasticine Playdo with some modeling kit
This plasticine, although it would probably be more appropriate to call it modeling dough, is the coolest.
I recently discovered some awesome kits with which you can create all sorts of interesting things. A variety of molds, carved cutting knives and other artifacts will keep children occupied for a long time.
After the game, the plasticine is put away plastic cups and, in general, all this wealth is compactly packaged.
4. Tablet
Maybe someone will say a word against it, but I don’t see anything terrible in children’s applications on a tablet.
There are incredibly beautiful and educational games. My children sometimes play at home too. True, no more than twenty minutes, as the great and terrible Komarovsky bequeathed.
I really like books that come to life and various alphabets.
Of course, all these methods work if the child is quite diligent. I assume that it will not be so easy for active specimens a la “shilo-popa” to sit down and fold some kind of lotto.
Active children are difficult to keep in place. In this case, they can be captivated by the views from the window. Can you tell me some interesting stories about the places you pass. And no one has ever prohibited walking into neighboring carriages.
During the day, passengers usually have a very favorable attitude towards children walking importantly up and down the corridor.
In general, it is important to alternate a child’s mental activity with motor activity. Don’t forcefully keep him in place, give him the opportunity to “take a walk,” and then quietly captivate him with some kind of game.
Probably what is more important is not so much the set of games as the attitude of the parents themselves.
Children absorb our mood like sponges, so it is important to be relaxed and not worry too much about the upcoming journey.
When we traveled with kids, everything was pretty smooth. The older three-year-old mostly looked out the window, listened to a book, colored, and watched cartoons from her neighbors.
But the twins liked to walk and stare at people.
But I know that now, when I decide to go with older children, I will definitely pack for each "magic box of joy".
Although, maybe I won’t go by train at all, but will go to Momondo and with a generous hand I will buy air tickets for the whole family. Who knows?
However, something tells me that maybe this summer I’ll decide on a similar trip with my whole cheerful family.
It's much easier with older children. They can read books themselves. And they can also be occupied with an interesting activity - creating a travel notebook. Let them write down some of their thoughts while traveling, collect tickets, unusual candy wrappers and paste them into a notebook.
They may be trying to sketch some road scenes. It’s okay if all this looks crooked and naive. After some time, the child will look through his notebook and remember the trip.
By the way, instead of chocolates, you can take with you various milk and nut bars and children's cookies.
More good thing - special hammock for train . With its help, you can create a safe environment for a child on a narrow shelf, as well as visually isolate yourself from the rest of the space, especially if you are traveling in a reserved seat rather than a compartment.
It looks like some sort of mosquito net with straps, but it looks like it should be taken. The main advantage is that you don’t have to be afraid that the child will roll onto the floor in his sleep.
With this I will finish listing the items for a comprehensive children's entertainment during long trips.
One way or another, a lot of people travel with children on trains. Yes, this experience is not always positive because all children are different. But in general, if you are in the mood for a trip, the parents are mentally prepared and have collected the necessary entertainment things - everything should go smoothly.
Don’t forget that everything is new for a child when traveling, and sometimes the best toys improvised materials become: spoons, mugs or my mother’s incredibly alluring cosmetic bag.
Write in the comments what else you can take with you on the train for children?
Anna Maslennikova talks about how her “Box” project helps parents keep their children occupied while traveling
A naughty baby on a plane creates inconvenience for both surrounding passengers and their own parents. A tablet can come to the rescue, but not all parents are delighted with this decision. And your favorite toy can get boring during a long flight. Muscovite Anna Maslennikova came up with special “travel boxes” for little passengers. The founder of the “Korobochka” project, Anna Maslennikova, told the website about how to provide children with an interesting activity, and their parents and other passengers with peace and tranquility.
Anna Maslennikova, 27 years old, entrepreneur, founder of the project. A television journalist by education, she graduated from the Humanitarian Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting. M.A. Lithuanian. Before launching her own business, she worked as an editor at Vesti FM and Mayak radio; content marketer at 3Dprintus.
How it all began
Anna and her husband Dmitry began traveling with their son Daniil when he was two and a half months old. On his first flights, the baby did not cause any inconvenience to his parents or others. But when he grew up a little, he began to act up on airplanes. Fly with a crying child uncomfortable for both parents and surrounding passengers. Anna didn’t know how to solve this problem.
Suddenly, she got the idea to take a small box on board and put in it toys and things that a child at that age might be interested in. Anna immediately decided that her “flight box” should be compact and fit into women's bag medium size.
The idea of how to entertain a child during a flight gradually began to transform into a business idea. Throughout the summer of 2015, Anna pondered whether something worthwhile would come of this. The young mother doubted that her invention would interest anyone. But she soon became convinced from the example of her own child that the idea really worked.
Anna decided to try out the first “Box” in September 2015, during an 8-hour flight. My son was woken up during the transfer, and he never fell asleep again. At the moment when the child was completely capricious, Anna put him in the cradle and took out the prepared “Box”. Her role was played by an ordinary box of sneakers. The 10-month-old baby enthusiastically played with its contents and was no longer capricious. “I realized that the man was busy,” recalls Anna. All the parents had to do was simply monitor his play and periodically maintain interest in it.
Before assembling the first set, Anna interviewed experienced mothers - both friends and strangers. She called and wrote to them, asking what toys their children use on trips. From the collected list, the travel mom selected what she considered necessary, plus added some items to her taste.
Then Anna began “testing” her “Boxes”. She sent people an offer to take “The Box” for free - with the condition that they write a review of how the child reacted to it. She used the feedback she received to make further changes to the toy selection. All these experiments took 3-4 months. In total, it took almost a year to think through and test the idea.
In the spring of 2016, having finished dealing with the content of the “Box”, Anna seriously began promoting. The project website and pages on social networks were launched. Made with the help of designers beautiful boxes. It was possible to sell individual copies of “Korobochek” before, but “serial” sales began in May 2016.
What's inside
“Boxes” come in three types: small (5-7 items), medium (7-10 items) and large (10-12 items).
At the initial stage, Anna collected “Boxes” only for children under 3 years old. When she interviewed experienced mothers, she realized: the most difficult “flight” age is from 9-10 months to 3 years. It’s easier to get older kids interested in something; they can focus on one thing for longer.
Attention of children from one year to three years quickly jumps from object to object. Therefore, the set contains not two or three toys, with which he will play enough in a matter of minutes, but from five to twelve
“A child’s choice often depends on his mood. If some of the toys from the set are not of interest, he will be fascinated by something else. And then he can switch back to the next toy,” says Anna Maslennikova.
According to the entrepreneur herself, “Korobochka” is suitable for babies aged 6 months and older. The youngest recipients of the flight kit are between 3 and 5 months old. It happens that sets are bought “for growth.” Recently, one order flew to Norway to visit a baby who is only 1 month old.
A box “for the little ones” consists of various elements: books, rustling or musical toys, wooden beads, rattles, etc. Some of the elements are quite small (for example, round colored “pebbles” with a diameter of about 2 cm), which not all parents like. But Anna believes that these toys are useful for the development of a child’s motor skills and can really distract him for a long time. The main thing is that one of the adults looks after the baby while playing.
A little later, Anna began making sets for older children. She puts in them not only toys, but also books, stickers, puzzles, problems, creative items (pencils, markers, plasticine, etc.) Today, both preschoolers and students can receive the “Box”. primary school, and even teenagers. The maximum age of recipients is 13 years.
When selecting the contents of the “Box,” Anna has to take into account two limiting factors: cost and size of things. Now the size of the “Box” is 22x12 cm. The largest set consists of 12 elements and fills it almost to capacity. Therefore, some interesting and suitable, from the point of view of an entrepreneur, things (for example, large-format books) have to be “rejected” because they are too large.
How does the order happen?
After the client clicks the “order” button on the website, he needs to answer three questions: the child’s age, his gender and where the kit will be used. Taking into account only three parameters, the “Box” turns out to be quite individual. This is also helped by the fact that Anna signs each box with the name of the recipient.
Then, if the customer wants, he can fill out a short questionnaire about the child’s preferences. In it you need to tick off what the child is interested in, whether he likes to draw, sculpt, etc. According to statistics, a person spends 40 seconds on a questionnaire. Most clients agree to fill it out. “Of course, I’m unlikely to be able to take into account all the parents’ preferences. But I try to fulfill their wishes as much as possible,” says Anna.
To achieve the best results during the trip, it is recommended not to show the child the contents of the set in advance - otherwise the surprise effect will be lost
Sometimes one customer buys two boxes - when he goes on a trip with two children. In these cases, Anna follows certain rules when packing. She puts several identical toys in both “Boxes” so that the children have “their own” and do not take them away from each other. But most of the items in the two sets will be “different”, even if the “clients” are about the same age. This allows children to play with each other and exchange toys.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything special about my idea – just a box and toys. But, firstly, they are folded in a beautiful box. It is given at a certain moment, and due to this, the desired effect is achieved. Of course, in each situation it is very individual how much you might like the box. It's a lottery in a sense. But so far it seems to be working,” says Anna Maslennikova.
Suppliers
Each box, regardless of the age of the recipients, contains books that Anna loves and carefully selects. She usually looks for them in the Biblio-Globus store. To understand whether a book is suitable or not, you need to see it “live” and touch it with your hands. After such trips, the founder of the “Korobochka” project contacts the publishing house and orders a batch of books she likes. Anna collaborates with some of them (for example, with the publishing house Clever) on an ongoing basis.
Anna uses the same principle to select other items for her sets. If she likes a toy, she buys it in a store in a single copy and tests it - gives the purchase to her son or friends who have a child of the required age. If the “target audience” likes the toy and is suitable for the “Box” in size, Anna buys it in bulk and puts it in her sets.
When there is no time to go shopping, the entrepreneur looks for new elements for her product on the Internet. Some manufacturers have convenient, well-designed websites, and Anna prefers to purchase from them. But if she needs to put something specific in the “Box”, based on the wishes of a particular child, it’s easier for her to buy the right thing in a regular retail store.
Some of Anna's suppliers are individual entrepreneurs making something interesting. For example, one girl makes beads for children that can be chewed. Some manufacturers are already approaching Korobochka with an offer to include their toy in the set.
During her travels around the world, Anna also looks for suitable things and toys for the “Box”. She buys what she likes and puts them in sets. Thus, some recipients of the “Boxes” discover in them “special” things that cannot be found in our country. The sets have already included toys from Estonia, Portugal, and the Czech Republic.
Delivery
The geography of “Korobochek” supplies in Russia is currently limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Moscow, purchases are delivered by courier; the method of delivery to St. Petersburg depends on the client’s choice.
“Korobochka” went beyond the borders of Russia literally from the first day of the project. Postal or courier services Anna doesn’t use it: the cost of such delivery would far exceed the cost of the “Box” itself. Travelers themselves bring them to their acquaintances and friends around the world. Thus, “The Box” visited the USA, Italy, Norway, Georgia and several other countries.
When Anna Maslennikova herself flies to another country, she always writes about it on social networks and invites locals to place an order. In this case, she gives purchases “from hand to hand”, and does not charge money for delivery. During one trip, Anna can take up to five “Boxes”. This is how she sold several sets while visiting Israel.
The main competitor is the iPad
The “Boxes” compete with small sets of toys, as well as toys from the “On the Road” series. But their main disadvantage, according to Anna, is that the sets are small, and there is only one toy “for the road”. These items are not enough to keep a child occupied for a long time. The Korobochka project does not yet have any direct competitors producing similar sets.
But the entrepreneur considers her iPad to be her main competitor. There are usually cartoons and games there. With a tablet, the child is as busy as possible and does not require parental attention. When a child plays with the “Box”, he still needs to be supervised. But, according to Anna, such games are much more useful than watching cartoons on an iPad.
Now Anna’s son is 2 years and 3 months old, and she is trying to limit his access to the tablet. They started using the gadget “in doses” only when my son was one and a half years old, and only in cases where there was no energy left for other ways to occupy the child’s attention.
“Some are surprised that Korobochka does not provide an opportunity for parents to completely relax. I always put a note in the “Box” for clients: “Have an easy flight, but don’t forget that a child under 3 years old should not be left alone.” Many people think that once they receive the “Box,” they can forget about the child for a while. If this were really true, I would already be a millionaire. But it's not wand. In any case, you need to keep an eye on a small child,” notes Anna.
Sales and promotion
The cost of the “Box” depends on its size. A small set costs 1,400 rubles, a medium set costs 1,900 rubles, and a large set can be purchased for 2,500 rubles. Delivery in Moscow costs 300 rubles.
“Boxes” are sold only through the website amkorobochka.ru. The project page is on Facebook and Instagram. Quite a lot of buyers come based on recommendations from those who have already ordered sets. Anna also uses thematic communities on social networks related to children or travel for promotion. She writes short feature articles for them.
In the summer of 2016, Anna Maslennikova had her first experience of “bringing” her project to festival sites. She used to often attend Seasons magazine festivals as a spectator. When she had her own project, the girl decided to take part in this festival with him. Such events, according to Anna, give her the opportunity to communicate with clients and see what the children themselves put in their “Boxes”.
It was participation in festivals that “told” Anna that “Korobochka” attracts not only kids. Children of 8-9 years of age and even teenagers enjoyed playing at the stand
“At the festival I gave master classes with children. The age of the children is from 1.5 to 13-14 years. In 2 days we had about 150 children. We didn’t seem to be doing anything special – we were just drawing, gluing and assembling boxes. But the children spent from 30 minutes to an hour in my area,” says Anna.
At first, the entrepreneur sold 5-7 sets per month. After six months, the number of orders ranged from 7 to 15 per month. In September of this year, the project had about 100 clients per month. To cope with the increased demand, Anna hired two employees. Today Korobochka’s monthly revenue is approximately 200 thousand rubles. And there is a good trend towards its growth.
Feedback
For several months after the launch of the project, Anna herself was delivering the kits. She did this, among other things, in order to communicate with customers and better understand their needs. She also always asks customers to leave reviews and comments. The girl takes most of them into account in her future work.
“When you create a product, you imagine some kind of portrait of your client. If the portrait is “created” incorrectly, then there will be problems with selling the product. Therefore, it was very important for me to look at clients and communicate with them in order to understand how right I am in what I do,” admits Anna.
Some buyers are skeptical about the “Box” at first and buy it just to try another way to entertain children on the road. But after the first trip with “Korobochka,” their attitude towards her changes to positive and even enthusiastic. One client wrote to Anna: “I couldn’t even imagine how much my child would like The Box. The flight has long passed, but he still does not part with her. The child even wears it to school. Recently, at the hospital, we calmly waited for a doctor for 30 minutes, while a child and other children played “The Box” all along the corridor and guessed some riddles.”
Another customer sent an audio file in which she said how impressed she was by “The Box.” “The main surprise was that there were “so many different things” in it. It was very nice to hear this,” adds Anna.
The situation when customers did not like the contents of the set arose only once. It turned out that Anna and the child’s mother simply had different ideas about what the baby needed on the road. They “separated” peacefully, apologizing to each other for the fact that their tastes did not coincide.
Project team
Since the birth of the business idea, Anna has been working on the project together with her husband Dmitry. He participates in all important business processes, including negotiations. From the very beginning he was “imbued” with the idea of “The Box”. And even when she was overcome by doubts about the viability of the idea, her husband always advised not to abandon the project.
“I’m nowhere without my husband’s support. He is essentially responsible for the development of the project. I try my best not to distract him. It’s very difficult for one person to follow a project, especially when you want to grow,” states Anna.
The Maslennikov family travels often. Anna and Dmitry love to meet new people and cultures, the couple wants to instill a love of travel and their discoveries in their son. Due to travel, Anna is not always involved in working on the project. “For now, other people cannot collect sets without me. We have a solution to this problem, but we need to work on it,” she explains.
Her friend, editor of the Seasons publication, helps the entrepreneur with filling the website and social networks. The hired employees appeared in the project only two months ago. These are two girls who work with clients, help with delivery and other processes.
Prospects for growth
Now Anna is busy preparing the “New Year’s box”. This will be a limited collection, different from the “regular” one in design and content. It will contain several things and toys with New Year theme. In mid-November, Anna plans to announce the “New Year’s box” and begin accepting pre-orders, which will be delivered to customers by mid-December.
The entrepreneur’s immediate plans include further work on kits for different ages, as well as improving logistics. In the longer term, Anna is considering the issue of increasing the age of recipients of the “Box” up to adult travelers.
“When I give the “Box” to customers, they sometimes say that they want one for themselves. And we imagined (for now only as a joke) that an adult serious man in a suit was flying somewhere, and suddenly opened a box on which was written: “For Igorka.” In this regard, it’s still a more promising idea to make a box “for girls,” but all this needs to be thought through,” says Anna.
The main task that Anna has set for herself in the near future is to grow and increase sales. But to prevent a decrease in quality as volumes grow, she will have to devote more time and effort to the growing project. Now, while her son is small and requires constant attention, this is impossible.
“I’m a mother on maternity leave, my main “work” is now sleeping, and therefore I can “find” time for my business. In a few months, the baby will go to kindergarten, he will have his own hobbies. This means that I will have more free time, and I will be able to devote as much of myself to this project as possible,” plans Anna Maslennikova.
The article uses photographs of Daria Buzenkova, Yulia Sverchkova, Mikhail Loskutov, @rududu.
is a set of different interesting things: beads, stickers, books, pencils, puzzles, cars, dolls, travel finds that will help parents when traveling with their baby. Main idea creators of the project: time is priceless, and you shouldn’t waste it on shopping when you can go to the website, fill out an application in a minute and receive an individual set. After all, many people don’t have time to assemble such boxes themselves, and some don’t know what a child is interested in at a certain age.
Anna Maslennikova, author of the project: “The box is not a magic wand; small children still need to be looked after. For some reason, many people think that with Korobochka you can forget about the child. Until the age of three, I leave information to everyone that they need to stay close to the child. And yes, it’s hardest with the little ones, because children have their own moods, so the Box contains a lot of elements specifically so that the child is definitely interested in something. When people ask me at what age it can be used, I answer that it can be used from 5-6 months.”
The set is assembled based on three main parameters:
– age (from 0 to 13 years)
- floor
– place of use.
There are three different sets, differing in the number and cost of elements, so that everyone can choose the most suitable Box in terms of cost and travel duration.
You can order the set on the website. After completing the application, project staff contact the client and send a short questionnaire with questions about the child’s preferences.
The cost of the box is from 1,400 to 2,500 rubles.
I came up with a project journalist and mother Anna Maslennikova: “As our son got older, it became harder to keep him entertained on planes. Aeroflot gives out toys from the age of three, and my son was 9 months old. Yes, boxes with toys for development have existed for a long time and successfully. It’s funny, but I found out about their existence after I decided to take my son’s shoebox and put something in there that could simply distract him.The idea came after an unsuccessful Moscow-Israel flight. Dima's husband, an entrepreneur, said that the idea was great and we should take it on.
I wrote on social networks that I needed mothers with experience traveling with children, gathered about 15 people and interviewed everyone. And then I made a list of the things that are used experienced mothers. I added my life hacks and passed the Box around for testing. They wrote to me that it worked, and that it didn’t, and I corrected everything at the same time.
Now I continue to travel, bringing the Box to other countries (Israel, America, Georgia, Italy, Norway). Recently they have expanded throughout Russia, there were deliveries to Vladivostok, Arkhangelsk, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, and in parallel with Moscow there are orders from St. Petersburg. Given a choice, the child will definitely put down the iPad for an hour and study the contents of the Box.”
A newborn requires special living conditions from his parents in which he will feel comfortable and cozy. Immediately after the baby is born, you can buy a sling for him in the MyMal online store. It will allow the baby to remain in close contact with mom even when she has a lot to do. As soon as the little one learns to sit, you can buy him a kangaroo backpack. Thanks to him, mothers and fathers will be able to live in the usual rhythm of life, and their child will discover a new world together with their parents.
A car bottle warmer will allow parents to feed their baby milk from a bottle or formula even while traveling. It is very convenient, does not require filling the container with water and connects to the cigarette lighter socket. As soon as complementary feeding starts, you can take a baby thermos with you for food on the road. Thanks to it, your baby will always be satisfied with healthy and carefully prepared food at the optimal temperature.
So that you can always conveniently take your baby with you on a visit, a clinic or pharmacy must buy a cradle and baby carrier. It has a hard bottom and strong sides and is therefore perfect for a baby's fragile back.
Traveling with a one-year-old or older
If you decide to take your baby with you on a bike ride through parks and squares, nothing could be easier; children’s bike seats will provide the necessary level of comfort and safety for your child. They have a high back and protective sides and footrests.
If your whole family and your baby are going on an overnight camping trip or just spending the whole day in the park, don’t forget to buy a children’s tent. Together with a children's sleeping bag for sleeping, it will provide the little one with strong and light dreams in the fresh air. Thanks to the dense fabric and mosquito net, insects will not be able to disturb your child's sleep.
And in order not to forget anything and to develop independence and responsibility in the baby, he should definitely buy a children's backpack. You can put everything you need for travel and schoolwork in it.
Traveling with a child by car
To ensure that all the necessary items for caring for your little one are always at hand while driving, you should buy a children's organizer for the car. And the more pockets and compartments there are, the better, each item will have its own place. So that the question of finding a toilet does not take parents by surprise, children's travel potties with special replacement bags were invented.
