How Early to Tell 4 YO?

[sara74]

We are leaving for WDW on 4/23 and the kids don't know yet. Is January too soon to tell DD? She is almost 4, has a good grasp of the calendar and events and I am dying to tell her!!!! I also want to start using a 'chore chart' with her for some household responsibilities and thought that Disney dollars were a good reward/incentive. I was thinking we could work on the paper chain countdown together at the end of January (to hang in the toy room) and tell her when it was finished what it is for. That would be 3 months in advance. Am I nuts?

 

[crisi]

We are leaving for WDW on 4/23 and the kids don't know yet. Is January too soon to tell DD? She is almost 4, has a good grasp of the calendar and events and I am dying to tell her!!!! I also want to start using a 'chore chart' with her for some household responsibilities and thought that Disney dollars were a good reward/incentive. I was thinking we could work on the paper chain countdown together at the end of January (to hang in the toy room) and tell her when it was finished what it is for. That would be 3 months in advance. Am I nuts?

We go every other year and have since they were toddlers. So our kids know they are going 24(!) months in advance. It isn't real to them until the other milestone events are out of the way (i.e. the year my son turns 9, he knows its "his birthday, sister's birthday, mom's birthday - then we go to WDW - it isn't until we get past all those birthdays that they start thinking about Disney as real).

 

[Kimmielee]

I told my 4 year old when I booked the trip.... both of our birthdays were in between when I booked vs. when we left, so it was easy for him to determine the timeline.

This time, now DS is 6, I booked in July for our April 18th trip/cruise and asked him how he felt about NOT going in October so we could do WDW and the cruise. He was fine with it because of the cruise being added. This time, both birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter must all pass.

I've learned as long as there are milestones in between, they can figure it out and it's sooo exciting to discuss the plans with them vs. having to contain excitement on my own! Good luck!

 

[chattyann]

I have a 4 yr. old and we told him and his 7 yr old brother in nov. that we are going
and we are not leaving till Feb. 17th. Every week or so they ask how long till we go
and we have a countdown for the days left till we leave. I am glad we told them
because this is our first time going and they are so excited but they both have a
pretty good grasp of how long we have. My 7 yr old wants to start marking off the
days on the calander in Jan.

 

[Marimar]

I think it would depend on the child.

DD...I would not dare tell her too much in advance, although she has a great grasp of the calendar she would still ask....hourly! LOL!

They will find out Christmas Day that we will be leaving January 3rd. I am already dreading the "When are we leaving?" at least five or six times daily. However, I do believe the anticipation of the trip is part of the experience I, as the adult, will just have to learn to deal with it! LOL!

 

[Nancyg56]

I think it would depend on the child.

DD...I would not dare tell her too much in advance, although she has a great grasp of the calendar she would still ask....hourly! LOL!

They will find out Christmas Day that we will be leaving January 3rd. I am already dreading the "When are we leaving?" at least five or six times daily. However, I do believe the anticipation of the trip is part of the experience I, as the adult, will just have to learn to deal with it! LOL!

I would love to tell my 4 year old DGD about our January trip after we celebrate Christmas, and my Dh also thinks it would be a good idea. My DD is afraid taht she will be too excited to sleep, eat, breathe.....DD wants to avoid any problems. DSIL has not expressed any opinion yet. DH and I want to let her be excited and anticipate the trip What is a Nana to do?

 

[minkydog]

With a 4yo i'd probably wait until March to tell about an April trip. When my kids were little we usually opted not to tell them until the event was pretty close,just in case things fell through. In fact, on our last trip we loaded up the car, hitched up the pop-up, and told them we were going camping--never mentioned WDW. They didn't even ask questions until we got to Orlando 8 HOURS later( I don't know where they thought we were going ). And to top it off, Granny flew down and joined us! Best trip we ever had.

 

[kfeuer]

I think it would depend on the child.

DD...I would not dare tell her too much in advance, although she has a great grasp of the calendar she would still ask....hourly! LOL!

They will find out Christmas Day that we will be leaving January 3rd. I am already dreading the "When are we leaving?" at least five or six times daily. However, I do believe the anticipation of the trip is part of the experience I, as the adult, will just have to learn to deal with it! LOL!

I'm with you! I have a DS who will turn 5 next week and a DS who's 2.5, and they don't know about our January Disney trip yet. I think we'll tell them about 2 weeks before we leave (that's all I can take of "are we going to Disney yet" multiple times a day). I want them to enjoy the anticipation, but I also need to keep my sanity!