Suggestions needed for a "countdown" for a 5 y/o

[karabeunso]

We are taking my 5 y/o DD to Disney World in June and made the mistake (?) of telling her already. Every day she asks when we are going and how long it is until then.

Does anyone have any unique suggestions as to how I can help her count down the days until we go?

 

[wlwilliams9]

I got a bunch of the Mickey head paint chips at Home Depot, laminated them and put magnets on the back. Every day we take one off the door before we go upstairs for bedtime. DD won't go upstairs without removing one and trying to count them (she's only 2 1/2, so she gets to about 30 and starts counting random numbers!) You could also add numbers to them and have her search for the next number.

 

[coolbeans]

I guess that we are old fashioned, we did a construction paper chain link thing. Strung it over the living room windows and removed one link per day!

 

[Tinkerbellandfamily]

You can make a paper chain and make enough links to represent the number of days. Everyday you can let your child take one link off and this way they can physically see how many links/days are left. You can even let them decorate the links with disney stickers, etc before you link them all together.

 

[scape1224]

Another vote for the chain link.

I love the disney sticker idea to decorate as well. My big boys would love this. Disney stickers will be put on my shopping list.

 

[brie182]

I took the paint chips from home depot, numbered them and put them on strips of paper. Then I hung it around my daughters room. We got one of those mini cards that you put with flowers that had the princesses on it and each night we would move the princess card down. It was fun to see how far we had come and how many more days left.

You can check out a pic here.

i184.photobucket.com/albums/x246/brie182/DSC_0412.jpg

it won't let me post a pic since this is my first post.

 

[wlwilliams9]

We did the chain link thing last year, but we only did 30 days because DD was only 22 months then and didn't really understand anyway!

 

[huskies90]

Last time we did the HD Mickey heads. We numbered them and put a trivia question or fun fact under each one. Under the question was a picture of the WDW attraction or character that gave them the answer. My girls took turns pulling off the Mickey head and reading the question every day.

This year I did the following for our upcoming trip. I gave it to my girls as a Xmas gift. Every time we go to Disney and every Xmas, I always buy a bunch of Disney pins on eBay so my daughters can use them for trading. This year I tried to incorporate the pins into the countdown calendar. The way it works, is that the girls will take turns removing a pin each day right up to our departure day. They can keep the pin if they like or add it their trading lanyard.

For the calendar itself, it is pretty simple. I used Powerpoint with the fireworks background template, the Waltograph font that you can find for free online, and various clip art that I also downloaded for free in various spots. Then I just poked the pins thru the back and attached the Mickey backing on the front. On the back I covered each pin with a Mickey head cut out so that you can't see any of the pins for the upcoming days when you are removing the current day's pin (the HD heads were too big for this)

Here is the powerpoint file. You can customized it with your own colors and clip art:

countdown1.ppt


And here is where I downloaded the font:

http://www.dafont.com/walt-disney.font

 

[jodifla]

Last time we did the HD Mickey heads. We numbered them and put a trivia question or fun fact under each one. Under the question was a picture of the WDW attraction or character that gave them the answer. My girls took turns pulling off the Mickey head and reading the question every day.

This year I did the following for our upcoming trip. I gave it to my girls as a Xmas gift. Every time we go to Disney and every Xmas, I always buy a bunch of Disney pins on eBay so my daughters can use them for trading. This year I tried to incorporate the pins into the countdown calendar. The way it works, is that the girls will take turns removing a pin each day right up to our departure day. They can keep the pin if they like or add it their trading lanyard.

For the calendar itself, it is pretty simple. I used Powerpoint with the fireworks background template, the Waltograph font that you can find for free online, and various clip art that I also downloaded for free in various spots. Then I just poked the pins thru the back and attached the Mickey backing on the front. On the back I covered each pin with a Mickey head cut out so that you can't see any of the pins for the upcoming days when you are removing the current day's pin (the HD heads were too big for this)

Here is the powerpoint file. You can customized it with your own colors and clip art:

countdown1.ppt


And here is where I downloaded the font:

http://www.dafont.com/walt-disney.font

Wow! I'm impressed. This is so cute!

 

[*BTMRR*]

This isn't unique, but my 6-year-old really liked the good old fashioned construction paper countdown chain. Ours was about 120 days long to start with and it stretched all across the dining room wall!
We used fancy paper to make the links for the handful of special days (birthdays, holidays) that were coming up before the trip and marked each of those links clearly so that they really stood out and made for kind of a mini-countdown within the countdown. If that makes any sense.
The kids decorated the last link--the day of our departure--and we kept that last link for our trip scrapbook.

 

[jenndisney]

This year we planned a disney night every Saturday. I would pick a disney dish to make and we would countdown the weeks until our trip. My daughter helped with the picking of the meal and cooking. When we were far from our trip, counting down the weeks works better. The other thing we did was we had a map on the fridge of the route from our home to WDW. We started walking a mile or so a day and would mark off how close we were to WDW. Eventhough we were flying, this was a fun way to get our feet and legs in shape and also countdown our trip. We did not quite make it to WDW by our trip, but it was fun to do.

Have fun!

 

[huskies90]

Ours was about 120 days long to start with and it stretched all across the dining room wall!

This is one disadvantage of mine. It is only 30 days. I would love to do 120 days but I’d go broke buying pins

This year we planned a disney night every Saturday. I would pick a disney dish to make and we would countdown the weeks until our trip. My daughter helped with the picking of the meal and cooking.

Jenn – I love this idea. What are some examples of the “Disney dishes?”

 

[TinkerBelle920]

I make a paper chain for each trip this time I just went into Powerpoint and pasted a picture of mickey across the page 5 times then printed that out and cut it into strips. It turned out really cute!

 

[karabeunso]

I love all these ideas! Thanks so much...keep 'em coming! You guys are so creative!

I'm also curious as to what the "Disney dishes" are.

 

[wlwilliams9]

We make Disney dishes too! I started doing it to get my DD to eat more than chicken nuggets and mac & cheese, although we do make Mickeroni and cheese! Last night I made Goofy Goulash (sp?)!

 

[Mickeyherewecome123]

we do the countdown chain for our 5 year old boys. I got a copy of a DISNEY countdown chain on the creative boards. Here is the link.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1606287
Its really cute and the kids can cut out the links and glue them together. Its a fun project and it give them the idea of how long its going to be before the trip.
Have fun planning!!

 

[PollyannaMom]

....The other thing we did was we had a map on the fridge of the route from our home to WDW. We started walking a mile or so a day and would mark off how close we were to WDW. Eventhough we were flying, this was a fun way to get our feet and legs in shape and also countdown our trip....

I love this idea!!!!!

We also usually count weeks when we are very far out, and then days when we get closer. Here's an example from a few years ago - the strips of small circles were removed each week, then the large circles each day toward the end: