Activities for 3-4 year olds?

[Disney_1derland]

My dd will be 3 1/2 during our March '04 trip. Here I am way too many months ahead of time worrying about things like autograph books and pin collecting.

So, I'm looking for feedback from others who have already taken children of this age group.

I know the autograph book thing will depend on if she is scared of the characters or not, that will be a wait and see thing. I guess then we'll see if she's interested in the autograph side of the character experience. Anyone have a child this age that does get into this?

The pin trading is a source of some debate in our house LOL. Our last trip when dd was 14 months old we were given many many pins by well meaning CM's so a 'collection' of sorts was started. Most of them just thought we were depriving our child by not getting her pins, they felt sorry for her! It was a huge part of the magic of the entire trip. Everyone time we passed a pin booth we'd be given one and the girl that was at downtown disney gave dd pins 2 or 3 times. Well, now we have those pins and we plan to buy at least a dated one to commemorate this trip but is 3 1/2 too young to participate in this? Or, should I buy a lanyard and gear up for pin trading?

okay, obsessing may be putting it lightly but I'm so excited to be going back and I think I may not make it to March, so this helps to ease the excitement, thanks for reading!

Always living in a disney_1derland,
Lori

 

[BevS97]

at 3 1/2 my dd quite enjoyed collecting autographs. She was a little nervous of the characters, but walking up and handing over the book was quite a good way to break the ice. Even if she wasnt' feeling brave enough for a hug, she could give them the book and let them sign in.

We didn't do any pin trading that year, the following year when she was 4 1/2, she quite enjoyed it, but it was really more about pin 'collecting', as she certainly wasn't prepared to give any pins up. What happened was that we would stop and look at the CM's lanyards and then if she saw one she liked, Mum would have to give one of her pins up, so that Katie could 'trade' - In the future, I think I will buy some traders before we go and not put them on a lanyard, just keep them in my bag to 'pay' for her trades.


bev

 

[campingcorgi]

We took our little one at 2 1/3 and she stood for photos with the characters but we didn't do the autograph stuff. We figured she would let us know when she was interested in that. Turns out she showed us alright--I made her a little photo album of the trip and she wanted a pen for Mickey to write in it!!

So this year at 3 1/3 she did the autographs and had fun!! She didn't do any pin trading, though, but she does collect from our lanyards--lol!

 

[ahutton]

I'm planning to give my DD a disposable camera of her own for our next trip. It is a great way for her to take pictures of what she sees is important. We'll then make a scrapbook when we get home, and will add to it on future trips. We may also try the autograph book but I'm not sure she'll get it? It may be better to save that one for a while.

We did the camera thing on a prior trip - she took a fantastic picture of my Dad pushing her stroller, it is at a funny angle because she leaned around the shade canopy and snapped!

 

[deb305]

When DD was 3 yrs we took her WDW. She loved getting Autographs and posing with characters. At that age she seemed to be afraid of nothing, she did the POTC, HH, SW, etc with no problems. We took her back at 4.5 yrs, and she was scared in HH. Go figure. She may like the passport at EPCOT and the Kidcot centers.

 

[clairesmom]

my daughter really enjoyed adventures in cooking, the cooking course at GF, at that age. She also liked the pony ride at Ft. Wilderness, and the surrey bike rides at Boardwalk or Wilderness Lodge. good luck.

 

[Duchie]

When we went in 2001, DS was 5, DD was 3.5, and DS was 1.5. My oldest two really enjoyed collecting autographs, but DD was a bit wary of the pictures at first (she eventually warmed up). My youngest wanted NOTHING to do with any of it, so he waited patiently in the stroller while his siblings got their autographs. When we go later this year, I'll get them all autograph books.

Haven't thought about the pin trading thing yet. Maybe we'll give it a go this time.

 

[CEDmom]

We were at WDW in May with our 3 1/2 yo DD. She did the autograph thing a little bit. However, her 2 favorite things were getting pressed pennies and having her passport signed and stamped in Epcot's WS. These both turned out to be godsends for DH and I and we used them as enticements. DD is not big on rides or anything too loud or dark. However, when we mentioned that a pressed penny machine might be found or someone might be available to stamp her passport where we wanted to go she was very eager to accompany us. The passport is about $10 and the pressed penny book was about $6.

 

[pinktink83]

I luv the passport idea, how cute! And pennies are mucho cheaper than pins!!! I also like the camera idea, really cute, and would make her feel so grown up!

Just bring your pins, bring your auto book, and if she does it, great, if not, stick 'em back in the fanny pack for next time!! Really at this age its hard to guess what they'll do, because they're so different when they're little.

I personally don't really like the whole pin trading thing. I figure if they like one certain pin with a fav character, then buy it, but why do they need a whole necklace full of pins from one trip?? Seems like it takes the focus away from WDW/DL to PINS. Also, I'd be afraid of the greedy factor like the girl above. I dunno, lots of people say they have fun doing it, but to me autos and pennies are cheaper and can have the same result.

 

[JVL1018]

We were there last year for my daughter's 3rd birthday, and bought pins, but no trading. She had a balst collecting them though.
I also did not do autographs, didn't tell her about them, and I hope she never finds out about it! LOL
We went and took a picture with every character we saw, but a couple times they had to leave, all she cared about was getting a wave from them, so they'd wave goodbye and she'd be happy even though she didn't get to go right up.
If we had the autograph book, she might have gotten upset about missing out on an autograph..and I just think it's more fun to just see whomever, take a pic if you can and if not wave and go on your way without feeling like Geez, I missed that one in my book.

Edited to aded:
We did the passport in Epcot and she enjoyed that(though she enjoyed coloring the masks at all the Kidcot stops even better) and she LOVED the pressed penny book. She still plays with that now.

 

[pinktink83]

Oooo, I never thought about it that way. Thats a pretty good point about the autos and feeling left out! Guess the safest way to go is pennies, the machines don't run away, lol!

 

[DisneyFeePee]

My DS had his 4th birthday in May, and for a few months before our arrival we would go to the Disney store and load up on their pins. They were only $.75-$1.50, and we kept those as trading pins. Instead of spending $10 on a pin to trade, my son got some really great pins, and that turned out to be something he really enjoyed. He got to know the folks working the pin station at the Poly pretty well. The pin trading was fun and not expensive at all. He wasn't that interested in the autographs; he just wanted to talk to the characters. When we did hit the parks, we just made sure that when we got out map that everyone in the group picked one thing that they really wanted to do. That left us with only 4 or 5 things, then we'd leave and take our break. We didn't have to stop to check CM lanyards because we limited trading to Poly and DTD.

 

[pinktink83]

Good idea about limiting the pin trading, thats a good way to keep it in check! I didn't know you could get pins at the Disney store as well, for that inexpensive besides! I've only heard prices like $10 so before I was kinda set against them just because of the price and the quantities of them!

 

[DisneyFeePee]

The Disney Store has drastically cut their supplies in stores, if they haven't stopped selling the pins in their stores (The less you can get there, the more you'll come to Florida, I guess). I think that's why they were so cheap. The were trying to get rid of them. When we do trade with pins from WDW, we look for the $6-8 pins. That's the only way we could keep trading. That can be an expensive pastime!

 

[Elk34]

Be sure and warn your child about the SIZE of the characters. I asked our 4 year old how big she thought Mickey was and she held her hand out to about the same height as she was. I think if you don't tell them ahead of time they might be scared by the sheer size of the characters (even the nice ones). The villains scared her (cruella made her cry) and she made our 7 year old daughter get the villains autographs for her. So, you might warn them that some of the meaner characters are there too.

Also, explain that some characters talk and some don't even though in the movies they all do. And some characters can't sign autographs either. The more understanding they have about the characters beforehand the better they will handle it.

 

[eek40]

When I went to WDW about 6 years ago with a little girl about 4 we were picked to be in a magizine for Southern Living, which did a feature on WDW from a childrens point of view. They gave each child ranging in age of 3-10 a camera and had them take pictures and then they developed them and had the children talk about their pictures. It was great, Laura had some interesting pictures of things from her point of view, and it made them very very special to us and her. I say take a camera disposible is a good idea, and let her take as many pictures as she wants. You will get a lot of duds(sky, fingers..etc) but you will get some priceless pictures. My favorite was I had Laura on my shoulders for a parade, and she took a picture of the tops of peoples heads Make sure if you do this you ask your dd to explain why she took the picture and what it means to her and then write it down so you know what it was
Aimee

 

[thumperjr9]

On our last trip my DS was 3 1/2. He was afraid to go up to the characters, but he did like to see them(except villians, he was terrified of them) So I would go up and get autographs, and grandma and him would stand back while grandma took pictures. After a day or two he got a little braver and when we saw Buzz and Woody (his favorites) He went up to get autographs on his own and grandma and I took pictures. He was so proud of himself. He has really enjoyed those pictures.

Giving them their own cameras is a great idea. We did that and my son loved taking pictures.

As far as the pin trading, we didn't do that this time. Maybe when he is older.

I do wish we had done the epcot passport. That sounds like fun. But we didn' t really allow enough time in Epcot, and my DS would have stayed at Living Seas all day. Don't under estimate the appeal of Epcot for preschoolers. Both my kids loved it at that age.