How to make an On-The-Go Travel Toy Case and Why You Need One

What is an On-The-Go Case?

I cannot believe it took me so long to make our On-The-Go cases with educational toys. On-The-Go Cases are exactly what they sound like. A small container filled with toys and activities to keep your little ones entertained on the go.

These cases are great for waiting rooms, restaurants and even car seats during long trips. There is nothing worse than wrestling your child to keep them from touching the toys in the sick waiting room at the doctor’s office. And you can say goodbye to the days of ordering a delicious meal only to eat it cold because you’ve spent the entire mealtime entertaining your toddler.

On-The-Go Cases are great because you can tailor them to any age and they can be put together using toys/items you already have at home. You can stick with a theme or bring a variety of items. 

What Do You Need?

1. Farm Babies TOOB and Atlantic White Sided Dolphin
2. Small containers like those found in the Multicolor Toy Organizer
3. Marker/Pencils/Crayon or Headu Flashcards - Little Boards Read and Write
4. Index Cards or Letter Flashcards
5. Stickers
6. Letter Tiles  

The cases I made were for my 3 year old Blake. She loves to draw and write. She just recently started getting really good at tracing letters and numbers. I grabbed some index cards because of their size but computer paper cut into smaller sections will work just as well. Although she doesn’t know how to spell yet, she can recognize some letters and I use every opportunity I can to practice letter names and sounds with her. We just got a new wooden alphabet puzzle board that she really likes. The letters are small enough to fit in her hand and in the small case so I decided to throw those in as well.

You can create your to go cases with your child's help but since this was the first time we brought ours out I wanted to surprise her with what was inside. Blake loves the animal figurines in Safari Ltd TOOBS. She's at the age where she constantly wants to be holding things in her hands and these are the perfect size. For the second case I added the Incredible creatures Atlantic white sided dolphin. I liked the size better for my almost 2 year old and she was able to have a better grip on it than the smaller figurines.

How To Prepare Your Cases

1. Choose animals from any of the Safari LTD TOOBS or Bigger Animal Toys in the Incredible Creatures collection
2. If there are no repeat letters in the names of the animal you have chosen, use the letters from an alphabet puzzle to spell out the name of the animal. (You can also just grab the first letter of the animal name and practice that sound)
3. Write out the names of the animals on index cards. Leave others blank.

How To Play 

1. Have kids practice tracing the names of animals.
2. Let them color/decorate index cards with stickers
3. Practice spelling out animal names using the wooden letters
4. Practice letter sounds
5. Imaginative play with Safari LTD TOOBS or Bigger Animal Toys

Activities by age group

Younger than 3

1. Use Incredible Creatures (larger so they don’t put in their mouths)
2. Color using crayons and index cards

5 or older

1. Draw animal habitats/background for play on index cars
2. Freehand spell out animal names
3. List other words with same beginning letter
4. Play tic tac toe/ hangman on index cards
5. Spell out animal names and have them find the missing letter
   
   

DeAna Dunn is a former special education and science teacher turned stay-at-home mom to 3 toddlers. Living life in survival mode.