Is 4 to young for pin trading?

[Sharron379]

We are going back to WDW in February and I am wanting to give my son some stuff for disney as a Chanukah present. So I was thinking about giving him a starter lanyard to do pin trading in WDW. My husband thinks he is to young for this. He will be 4 1/2 when we go! When did yall start pin trading with your kids?

Sharron
CTP 3/2/08-3/8/08
WL 2/4/09-2/12/09

 

[abe_bb]

Well, from personal experience...

Our first trip was when our daughter was 5, and she had a shyness problem. (Still does to some degree). We got her a special princess lanyard and some starter pins, and she was off to the races!

She traded whenever she could with disney employees. Never with other individuals, but with the workers she would go up on her own and talk/trade with them. It was the cutest sight.

It really helped her start to break through her shyness, and got her to the point where she could order food for herself at restaraunts, ask clerks for help in the store, etc.

 

[ScatCat]

No, I don't think it is too young at all. The shyness is overcome after the first few tries.

I agree with the previous poster though, you should stick to trading with CMs and not get involved right away with trading among other guests.

Also, at this age the kids tend to be reluctant to part with any of the pins they already have so the concept of trading is hard. I overcame this with DD by getting her a few pins that I know she didn't care about (ie. "boy" pins ) She traded those away without a care!

Good luck!
Scat

PS. I just remembered this, but DD was a little shy about approaching CMs, and one time at Epcot a CM noticed her looking at his pins and made it a point to come over to her, kneel down, and start telling her stories about his pins and where he got them. He showed her one in particular that made her eyes light up and sure enough, he negotiated a trade. He was wonderful with her.

 

[abe_bb]

PS. I just remembered this, but DD was a little shy about approaching CMs, and one time at Epcot a CM noticed her looking at his pins and made it a point to come over to her, kneel down, and start telling her stories about his pins and where he got them. He showed her one in particular that made her eyes light up and sure enough, he negotiated a trade. He was wonderful with her.

Ditto this - The CM's are great at this, and they will do all the right things (Get down onto the kids level, let them have a great deal, and most important treat them like adults and keep an eye for a parent waving their hand nONONONONONO! to a trade).

 

[mmaikisch]

I don't think 41/2 is to young at all. My youngest dd will be almost 3 when we go this dec., and we got her a starter set at the disney store for $2.99. She loves to imitate her older sister, so she will have no problem with this =) We also got some pins from ebay (25 for about $50), so that we won't have to buy them when we are there (they can get pretty expensive as we learned last year), and I will just give some to my girls little by little. I'll give alot of the smaller ones to my youngest that she won't like much so that she will be happy to trade for bigger ones from the cm's. Most of the cm's are wonderful about trading, and some of them wear a green colored lanyard and they will only trade with children which is really nice. Hope this helps!

 

[drakester]

My youngest started trading at 5 and this was a great thing for her. She is very, very, very shy and it was a way for her to interact w/CM's. Of course you will be right next to your own child the whole time helping w/the interaction. I say give it a try.

 

[mom2kayzb & jakers]

We just got back & my youngest was just shy of 4. He loved trading! He saw his older brother & sister doing it and wanted to do it all the time!! He's a shy one too! I think once they see all the other pins that the CM's have they love looking and seeing what they can get! I think at that age they may "think" they are buying pins and thinking the are all grown up! Like us!

 

[distherapy]

My then 3 yo daughter loved it. She traded with the CMs who were sweeping and it was a great time. She has her lanyard hanging in her room where she can see it.

 

[PrincessPaisley]

We first encouraged our daughter to trade pins when she was 3, and it was such a fun experience that we purchased new pins for her to trade the following year. Whenever our daughter found a cast member to trade with (somtimes she needed encouragement to approach them) we allowed her to trade for whatever pin she wanted, but limited her on the pins she could trade to the cast member to ensure she kept the pins that suited her best(tinkerbell, any princess, minnie, etc.). Some of the pins she chose really made us wonder what she was thinking (she passed up tinkerbell pin, and a hidden mickey sleeping beauty pin for a davey jones pin), but in the end it didn't really matter, as we knew she had had a great time trading.

 

[3DisneyBuggs]

My 6yo DD loved pin trading this year. My 3yo even asked CM's to see pins. HE wanted to trade all the time.My older son started trading last year he was 9.

 

[magchavez]

We just got back on Sat and my kids (7 and just 5) LOVED pin trading. My daughter (5) is really shy but she loved it. The cast members were terrific about it. They also did pin trading in the lobby of the hotel every night at 5:00. Before we left, I had ordered 5 pins for each of them to start with from Ebay. I should have ordered more. They both traded away all 5 on the first night! I say go for it.