Do A Count Down....Yes or no?

[dezimber]

Would you do a countdown for a 5 yr old that is asking, Can we go now questions more and more lately? We have less then 2 months left. What would you do? Looking for ideas to pacify, help with the waiting game?

 

[look1angel]

Would you do a countdown for a 5 yr old that is asking, Can we go now questions more and more lately? We have less then 2 months left. What would you do? Looking for ideas to pacify, help with the waiting game?

I ran a Family daycare in my home for 17 yrs & when Christmas would roll around we would do the countdown. One year it was cotton on Santa's beard, Candy on a Christmas tree, you get the idea.

I think at the age of 5 this would be perfect. Just make a countdown of what interests them. Ex. A Treasure chest with gold coins. Each day they take one out until the last one is left to indicate the day you leave. Or a Castle to decorate with jewels or stickers from the craft store. A crown to decorate & wear. A visor, door knob hanger. Make a T-shirt. I purchased a Disney Shirt from Walmart & put my daughter's name on the back with iron on letters. A coloring book with just the right amount of pages to countdown, color 1 each day.
If you don't mind using sweets, maybe a countdown with jelly beans or mini colored marshmellows, fruit loops, one to eat each day.

Just to name a few...Good luck & have fun!

 

[hedge333]

My DD is 4 and we're going to do a countdown about a month out. There are several links to different countdown chains and ideas if you do a search here on the board. I think I'm going to draw a calendar grid on a big piece of poster board and then every day we'll put a mickey mouse head on the calendar until we get to the last day. I'm going to mark the last date with a picture of Cinderella's castle. I think I'm going to get some disney paint samples from Home Depot to use for the Mickey Heads.
I think a 5 year old would love a countdown.

 

[MamaJessie]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1707141

We're doing these one a month for now until we get close and then we'll switch to once a week

 

[kittycat9]

Just a thought, but could be REALLY fun for your DD, and a record of her accomplishment...

Why not consider finding a red knit dress (maybe Hannah Anderson or Land's End has one?), then go to JoAnns, and find nice thick white knit (or go through your DDs old t-shirts - old navy-type quality so the red doesn't show through). Wash the dress first, twice (very important). While at joanns, look for the heavy duty iron on, new sew applique stuff - ask a sales person for help. Go home, and cut out exactly that many days worth of white circles (make sure you cut them so they'll fit right on the dress). Each day let your DD help you iron on a single circle on to the dress. Keep it hanging somewhere on a special hanger covered in clear dry cleaners plastic so she can see it, but not touch it. She can spend time counting the circles, looking at the calendar, and each day adding a new circle. When she's done - Voila - a very special dress that she can wear to have her picture taken with Minnie.

I would just like to say, there are days I wish I had a girl (to go with my boys).

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

Our kids were 4.5 and just under 3 for their first trip and they LOVED the nightly countdown calendars that I made them - they still talk about them! I did 30 day ones and just put different colored Mickey heads with the number on them on a sheet of posterboard for each of them. They took them off every night before bed and it was great.

 

[simba20]

Ummm I did a countdown chain with my 2.5 year old daughter for our trip last month. We waited until 30 days out and started it.

I also let her help me make it (i.e. she stapled the loops for me). Yes, I was careful when letting her hold the stapler. She loved it, and every morning she knew just to take off one link. We hung it on the back of our front door. I would aks her "What happens when the chain is all gone?" She'd reply "WE GO TO DISNEYWORLD!!!!!"

A great visual aid that let her know how much time before we went...saying one month, two weeks, or seven days did not give her something concrete.

Hmm I like the Santa's beard idea a PP mentioned. We have a trip in May, so I might do something more seasonal for that trip....or maybe fill a jar with 30 candies and allow her to have a piece each day (LOL...candy what a motivator). Then I can ask "What happens when the candy is all gone?" LOL.

 

[jt8595]

My kids love to do the countdown! My oldest is 14 and asked me the other day if we would still do a countdown this year. I start about two weeks out. We print a page for each day and decorate each page. Then make a calendar with the pages so they can rip off a page each day. Each day contains a rhyme for a brief treasure hunt. When they find the surprise which is in a Nemo gift bag, it contains something related to our Disney trip like movies, portable fans, Disney Dollars, Disney pins, etc.

 

[Serling126]

We are already doing a countdown because they keep asking when we are leaving! (They are 6 yrs and 4 years). We are using a regular calendar, it gives them a visual, and they like crossing off the days. We also have a chalkboard that we write down how many days are left til we leave (146 today), my older daughter likes to count backwards from there so it gives her math practice To pass the time, we are talking about what we will see and do, looking at pics from my past trips to disney, and we will be watching some of the disney movies that we haven't seen yet, like Mulan.

 

[tlh0726]

Last year I used stickers in their room and a bucket full of candy. Each night they got to take a sticker down and take a piece of candy from their bucket.

This year we are using the mickey head paint chips from Home Depot. I numbered the heads and taped them to the front of the refrigerator. We started at 100 and are down to 36

 

[LizzySwan1022]

I'm in college and I still love to do coundowns, I currently have one up in my dorm.

We go to Home Depot and get the Mickey shaped paint chip samples and write the number of days left in the middle of each Mickey head. then we tape em to the wall and take down the appropriate one each day... mine currently has three left or I'd take a picture to share.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

Would you do a countdown for a 5 yr old that is asking, Can we go now questions more and more lately? We have less then 2 months left. What would you do? Looking for ideas to pacify, help with the waiting game?

When we are 30 days out I make a countdown calendar.

I buy a package of post its, I count out 30 (don't seperate them though, just count 30, THEN separate those 30 from the big stack of post its) then on the first one I write 30, the next 29, the next 28, etc, all the while keeping the 30 intact.

I get sturdy construction paper and put DAYS TIL OUR NEXT WDW VACATION. We decorate the construction paper with stickers and I guess you could print things out on line, cut them and paste them on the paper.

THEN write the number 0 and place your post its over that 0, and everyday rip one off. I can usually hang it with a magnet on the fridge.

We tried doing this with more than 30 days but the post its were too heavy for the construction paper and it kept falling off.

This year we started doing Disney Themed movie nights as well. I try and do 2 a month. Here's a link to the thread with all the ideas that other DISers have posted if you are interested. They are really cute. We have done 3 caballeros, nemo, and up so far.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1707141

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

I'm doing a countdown chain that I got from someone on here, I think it starts at like 115 days out. But umm yeah, DS will be 20-22 months while we are doing it. So, it is probably more for my benefit lol!

 

[momofboyz]

My boys are 11, 9, 6 and 1 1/2 and are loving our countdown chain. They take turns everyday taking a link off, and take their picture doing it. The older boys even help their little brother take off his links.

The three older boys also each have a calendar that they put a sticker on each day for the countdown. It does help alot with the how many days do we have question.

 

[StuckInKS]

We did this last year and my kids loved it. We planned another quick trip for free dining last Oct and I made the mistake of starting their calanders (the girls' room gets one and the boys' room gets one) about 4 months out. It was REALLY hard telling them that we were going to have to wait until May. This time they have been bugging me to start their calanders, but I am going to wait until we are 2-4 weeks out this time. I'm glad I didn't start it yet as my mom has already mentioned pushing it back a few weeks to wait until my adopted sister's sons are out of school (they were also supposed to go in Oct and had to wait.)

 

[dezimber]

Thank you for all the replies they have helped a bunch. I was torn on the idea because I wasn't sure if I should keep it hush hush and wait until the last minute then say "Hey, we're leaving tomorrow!" or have something to look forward to/ remind him the we will be going soon. He loves Disneyland and is a ride junkie.

 

[lattemomof3]

My kids always say they don't want to be surprised w/ a trip, because they have so much fun w/ the waiting! We pop the Disney vacation video in, and they sit on the floor and make a count-down chain (we usually do 100 days). They decorate it w/ Disney stickers, and I write on a few of them (we're halfway there!, 1 month until Disney, 1 week, etc), then on the special days we'll do something fun- like Mickey shaped pancakes, or I'll decorate the table for dinner w/ Disney paper plates, etc, or we'll watch a Disney dvd. We spend the time waiting looking through our past vacation pictures, and checking out the Disney Park website to plan our days,etc. Planning and waiting for us is a big part of the fun!!!

 

[crysplefty]

I didn't read all the posts, so this may have been suggested. I went to our local Home Depot and went to their paint department to get their Mickey Mouse head paint sample cards. I wrote numbers on each of them and the kids took turns taking one down every day.