We travel with our 10 and 15 yr.old from San Diego to Europe and the handheld games are a life saver as well as Tylenol PM for older child and Benedryl for younger one. Just try them out before hand to make sure it does not make them hyper.

I take snacks, books, books on tapes, cards, mazes and these books called Mad-libs that you can buy at any bookstore. They have stores where you have to fill in the blanks (it will specify noun, verb, etc.) but they turn out pretty funny and the kids love the. Also take a travel journal, glue stick (if now allowed) plastic scissiors and have them work ontheir travel journal.

Also kids play this game with quarters on their table pull-out where its like a football game and they have 3 tries to get it across without fall of the table.

Finally check out the website seatguru.com to make sure you have good seats on the plane. It works every time for us and we usually get a seat free in the middle.