Children's play sets for the road. How to entertain a child on the train: putting together a “magic suitcase of joy” Traveling with a one-year-old child and older
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. The main idea of the project creators: time is priceless, and you shouldn’t waste it on shopping trips 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 things that experienced mothers use. 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.”
This summer we went by car to a family camp in Greece. Before leaving, I thoroughly prepared, picked up a collection of word games, and also put together a travel chest full of interesting activities for the child.
I'll tell you what I packed and how much it was used on the road. I’ll say right away that we don’t get seasick at all. Maybe the dynamic gymnastics practiced with the child in infancy had an effect. Therefore, I boldly took with me a lot of different things that can be done with my hands. What can you take with you to entertain your child? It depends on his age, and you yourself know better than anyone else what can please him and captivate him for a long time. I give a list for a 6 year old boy.
What to take with you in the car on a long journey
- New books. I took books with large print and interesting pictures to look at. I read and leafed through. I decided when. I sometimes gave wise advice, like “read Pushkin’s poems.” In general, I spent no more than 2-3 times a day with books for 15 minutes.
- Books with tasks - creative, logical, mathematical. I took Zhenya Katz’s notebooks, the set “We’re going - we don’t get bored” from Labyrinth, finds, Tatiana Zadorozhnaya’s book “How to draw any story.” I didn’t open much of Zhenya and Nakhodilka. I tried to draw along Zadorozhnaya only once (it turned out great!). The most popular set was from Labyrinth.
- Drawing. I put a clipboard and a lot of A4 sheets. I made a wonderful set of stationery in a box from Ikea (felt-tip pens, bright pens, compasses, pencils and sharpener, erasers, plain and curly scissors, decorative tape, glue, eyes). I included a new album with good paper and Cars. I didn’t draw much pictures. But he actively used paper: he rolled up airplanes, ships and hares, made and decorated pizza. I came up with a game of sending a parcel and going to a restaurant. Cooked (drew) for us different dishes, cut them out and sent them in a parcel (cardboard box) to the front seat. In general, the sheets and stationery set were actively used. You can put unsharpened pencils in a set with a good sharpener, let him work on the go.
- Notebook for travel notes. The dream of raising Paganel does not go away in me, although the artist is actively growing. I didn’t go: in three days, one inscription appeared in the notebook: “I liked to start the book”... Vanya has been reading since he was 4 years old, and began writing at 4.5 years old. Moreover, I didn’t really teach him either one or the other. I taught myself. I am writing about how this happens to children in the camp here.
- Plasticine. I created all the conditions: a new box, a set of cool stacks, a modeling board. So far it hasn't worked at all. It probably should have been given out as a surprise at some point.
- Map to mark the route. On a tip, I bought an erasable world map, but in fact it wasn’t very convenient to erase it on the road. The route was finalized upon arrival.
- Origami sheets. That was actually the Bomb! On the third day, as a surprise, I gave Vanya a book with diagrams of folding airplanes and beautiful sheets. And after that 5 hour journey all he did was design. The planes littered the entire cabin; at rest stops we tested them, some flew out of the windows. In general, origami really captivated the child and brightened up more than one day of his journey! Now he is asking for new folding schemes.
- Compact games (magnetic and logic). They, like the audio tales, also performed very well. I’ll tell you about them in a separate article.
- Flashlight or glow sticks- it’s good to give it out when it gets dark if the child is not yet sleeping.
- Binoculars- look around.
- Set of new yarn(to weave scarves and ropes) or rubber bands for weaving.
- Lego
How to give out surprises so that they last 3 thousand kilometers?
For the surprise box to work, there are several rules:
- The most important thing is not to dump it all en masse into some kind of “baby bag” that is available to him all the time. In this case, the value of gifts disappears. He won’t be diligently poking around and choosing something he hasn’t played with yet. Verified. Initially, some of the books, games and creative kits were in his special box for free access. It was a mistake. Because he watched it all in half an hour and lost interest.
- Each surprise should be wrapped as a gift before the trip. Many layers of paper. Or newspapers. A significant part of the journey will be spent simply unfolding. And, of course, in this form the surprise has much greater value.
- Give out surprises one at a time, several times a day. So that the child has time to fully enjoy them, play with them, and feel them.
- Make the surprise box itself inaccessible to the child, so that he does not peep in advance what is there. We didn’t have room for her in the trunk, so she rode next to Vanya the whole way. But he knew for sure that he couldn’t look into it, or all the surprises would go to gifts for others. I didn’t try to break the rule, I stuck to it.
That's all the rules. We easily got to Greece with this box, without ever resorting to the life-saving help of a tablet.
I also wrote about such a mega-important component of travel as
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 give your kids a 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 of 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.
Every mother, getting ready for a long journey with her child (or even several children), thinks with horror how she will cope with them on the road. After all, children are always bored when they can’t run and scream, when there are no familiar toys nearby - and it’s almost impossible to take all their favorite toys on the road.
Moscow businesswoman Anna Maslennikova came to help them. She suggested to families with children ready-made kits exciting toys, folded into a small box:
Such toys can keep a child occupied on the road for several hours.
Because these toys are completely new for a child. A lot of them. They are selected by age. And they will be interesting to him.
Anna herself often traveled with her son and perfectly understood the problem of “how to keep a child occupied on the road.”
When she collected the first such box for her son and for the first time he did not act up during a long flight, Anna realized that she could help other mothers in the same way.
She began collecting similar boxes and made her own business out of it - see her website amkorobochka.ru:
The boxes we offer are intended for children from 6 months to 12 years (parents first fill out a form so that the contents of the box are most suitable for their child).
And the sets cost from 1,400 to 2,500 rubles, depending on the number of included elements:
Anna creates the contents of the boxes herself. Some of her toys are purchased from wholesalers, some of them are her one-off finds that she sometimes comes across in retail stores.
The idea is very good. True, its implementation involves a lot of manual individual work and not mass sales (you can order your own box only from the project’s website).
But, in my opinion, it would be even better if such sets were sold directly at train stations and airports. Let them not be so individual, but roughly matched by age and gender.
(photo from the project page facebook.com/korobo4ka.ot.am)
Sometimes you only think about entertaining your child when you are sitting in a tedious wait at the station or when you are already jumping on a train or boarding a plane. And there’s no time for ordering in the online store.
Previously, at the Kazansky station I came across food packages - just for travelers or business travelers (in my opinion, they contained fried chicken, boiled eggs and bread). You arrived at the station 20 minutes before the train departed, quickly bought a grocery package, and were already running to the train. Very comfortably.
We buy magazines for travel in the same way. Almost no one buys them in advance. Because everyone knows that there is a special kiosk at the station where you can buy anything - magazines about fishing, cars, stars, politicians, crosswords, puzzles, coloring books, etc.
The same can be done with play sets for children. After all, in essence, they are all very similar - a few toys, a few books, a little handicrafts, stickers, coloring books, felt-tip pens - and, in fact, that’s all.
And the assortment can be changed. Let there be set #1, set #2, ... set #223. Everything seems to be the same in each set, but a little different. Just like the information in women's magazines - in each issue, everything is essentially the same, only the text and photographs are slightly different... And women never get tired of these magazines.
Then this business can be provided with mass production and mass sales.
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 a medium-sized women’s bag.
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. With the help of designers, beautiful boxes were made. It was possible to sell individual copies of “Korobochek” before, but “serial” sales began in May 2016.
What is 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 age of the child, 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 is easier for her to buy the desired item in a regular retail store.
Some of Anna's suppliers are individual entrepreneurs who make 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. Anna does not use postal or courier services: 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 offer 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 this is not a magic 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 “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.
The 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 " New Year's boxes" This will be a limited collection, different from the “regular” one in design and content. It will contain several New Year-themed items and toys. 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 increase, 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.