Travel LEGO Kit (With 32 FREE Printable Activity Cards!)

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We’re heading on a family trip to Disneyland soon, which means I’ve been busy brainstorming ways to keep our kids entertained on the plane.  I’ve previously shared some of our favourite road trip activities (check them out here), but for this trip I wanted something different.  I wanted a new activity that would hold my older boys’ attention for a while – so I could focus my energy on keeping our two-year-old occupied.

My boys are 4 and 6, and are avid LEGO fans.  As I searched for travel activity ideas, I kept coming back to travel LEGO kits and LEGO busy bags.  The idea sounded great, but I could just imagine my boys declaring that they were bored after 5 minutes of half-hearted building.

I needed a way to keep them engaged, while still giving them a chance to exercise their creativity.  I wanted it to be age-appropriate for both of them, and adaptable to different skill levels.

What I came up with is three different types of activity cards:

1. Easy LEGO builds
2. LEGO challenges
3. LEGO patterns

The activity cards either give them a build or a pattern to re-create, or are designed to be a jumping off point to inspire their creativity.

You can see the cards below, and download the printable here.

I found a sandwich-size container at the dollar store (similar here), and filled it with all of the LEGO they needed to build the above creations. All of the pieces I used for the easy builds and the patterns are in the photo below. I also threw in some additional pieces (wheels, windshields, figures, etc.) that I thought would be useful for the challenge cards. We have a massive collection of LEGO that we inherited from when my husband was a child, but if you’re just starting to build your collection, I’m a big fan of these boxes.

1. Easy LEGO Build Printables

My six-year-old will spend an incredible amount of time following LEGO instructions and perfectly re-creating ideas he sees elsewhere. We have a DUPLO box that he won’t let me throw out, because he wants to be able to copy the creations that are on the box.

For him (and kids like him) the first 11 activity cards are easy LEGO builds. The idea is that these can be easily re-created without instructions, just by looking at the pictures.

If you want to customize this, most of my ideas were adapted from building instructions I found on the LEGO website. If you search by LEGO Classic, you can find some of the simpler instructions that are included in the Classic Creative Boxes, some of which can be adapted to be easily built without instructions.

Related: 9 Organization Hacks That Will Change the Way You Pack for Your Next Family Vacation

2. LEGO Challenge Printables

The next set of activity cards are 13 LEGO challenge cards. I included these to give my kids a chance to exercise their creativity – with just enough direction to prevent them from getting bored! For these LEGO challenges, they use their imagination and creativity to build the object described on the card (and pictured, for the pre-readers).

Related: 34+ Best Toys for Three-Year-Old Boys

3. LEGO Pattern Printables

My six-year-old would quickly correct me and tell me that something has to repeat three times to be a pattern (who knew!). However, for lack of a better description, I’m referring to these last 8 cards as LEGO pattern printables.

These are designed to be simpler builds, for kids who may not quite be ready to re-create the builds in the first set of activity cards. For simplicity, they use the same pieces as the easy LEGO builds.

I created these LEGO kits for travel, but they’re also excellent for restaurants, doctor’s offices, or any time kids have to wait. You can download the full set of LEGO activity cards here. I hope your kids enjoy them as much as mine did!