Need creative ideas on counting down

[lovedisneyworld]

I am heading to WDW in August and looking for some creative ways to count down to the big day. My kids are so excited about it. I would like to hear some of your ideas. Thanks!

[faline]

Many folks report they have used paper chains and tear off one piece of the chain daily.

[RoosMomKanga]

Not at all creative, but one year we got a Disney calendar and took turns adding a disney sticker each day...with the special day marked at the end!:)

[vamaggie]

Depending on how much effort you want to put into it there is a lot you can do. We have done the paper chain and calendar count downs too (but not as far out as your trip is--we usually start about 100 days) You could have your kids (and you too!) write something they want to do, want to see, memories of Disney etc on index cards. When you are all done, turn the cards over and write numbers on them. Take them to a Kinkos type place and have them spiral bound. Take turns turning a number over and reading what's on the other side. You can then save it (or make a new one or add to it) for your next trip.

[#1donaldfan]

Hey, we're going in Aug this year too.......I don't have any creative ways to count down, I tend to be too impatient, so I just need to go to sleep and wake up the morning we "roll out". Actually, we have downloaded the disney countdown thing...it displays your time left down to the second.....it's pretty cool.......:thumbsup:

[senderella]

I have a friend who used candy for her little girl's countdown. She filled a jelly jar with M&Ms, one for each day of the countdown. Every morning her Emilie would get to eat one M&M, soon she noticed the jar was starting to look empty. Once she got to her last piece of candy, she knew it was time to go. No more candy...no more waiting!

[#1donaldfan]

That's a good one....I'm going to do the M&M thing.......!!! Thanks !!

[mickey&missy]

We did the paperchain from 100 days last trip. It seemed to take forever to make the chain and it was really long!

This time we took a piece of poster board and made 100 boxes, 10 rows of 10, and numbered them. We decorated it with Disney scrapbook stickers. Each day DD and DS each put a sticker on the day to make it off. Today is 38 days!! I think its a lot easier for them to understand how long it is this way. DD6 keep saying how many rows we have left.

We also have a little party at milestones, 100, 50, 30 and 10. The kids pick the food, hot dogs or something and we eat on disney plates, have ice cream and watch a Disney movie or a planning DVD etc.

[prprincess]

I have countdown clocks on each of my PCs (work and home). If you Google "countdown clock" there are several.

Also, I have a whiteboard. I drew a picture of Mickey ears and everyday just write in how many days away we are. It's so much fun!

[tys_mommy]

We are doing the paper countdown chain. Since we are now to just under 12 weeks, if our busy schedule ever allows I’d love to start a weekly countdown with Friday night dinner/Disney movie night - I found Mickey head shaped pizzas at a local grocery store and we have Mickey plates/cups/napkins by Dixie that we could use (any party supply store should have other brands).

[SAHDad]

We made a Disney calendar, with Goofy for one month, Snow White & Dopey for another, and, eventually, Mickey at the end. DS (almost 4) got to place a sticker over each day (we'd sometimes do a weeks worth at once, because he never wanted to do just one sticker), and we used the calendar to help teach counting down as a concept.

The M&Ms idea is cute - I'm stealing that for the next trip.

[irish1967]

Something we have done weekly is this...

Put together a list of topics, one for each week between now and your departure.

On the same day each week, take a topic and spend a little time researching it on the web and sit down and tell your family about the topic. Then you can cross your topic off the list and decide as a group what topic you will research the next week.

For our last trip, I did the following topics (among others):

Monorails
Hidden Mickeys
Cinderella's Castle
Everyone's favorite ride (HM, SM, SplM, BTMRR, TOT, RNRC etc)
History of the characters

I did it via e-mail because our group was mostly adults and spread out but you could easily fit the information to your children's ages.

Good luck!

[prshell]

My grandchildren are little, so we did the chain and decorated it with different Disney stickers. Then every week we would like at the different websites to see the various rides at Disney and make a list of what we wanted to see and do. Now we leave tomorrow morning!! :mjump: But I think we'll try the M&M one next time!!

[Janmac]

When our granddaughter was 9 I wanted to do a countdown chain but not a typical one. I found a website (no idea now where it was) that had Disney trivia. I put the trivia in a Word Document, one item of trivia per inch (had to edit out some trivia as being too long), printed off the trivia, folded it and put it in a chain. Not sure if I did a 100 day or a 30 day chain. I printed off several sheets of chains. It was quick and easy and our granddaughter was a wealth of info on our trip.

On another trip, for the same granddaughter at age 12, I made a packing countdown chain, as her mother (our DD) had started doing volunteer work and was not going to have the time available to pack. This chain was 30 days, starting with get the suitcases, on day one, and then stuff that wouldn't be needed as much working up to last minute stuff during the last week. By the end of the chain they were ready to go.

One idea I'm thinking of for our toddler niece is to print pictures of the Disney characters, cut them into strips, fold them, and then put them on the chain. Haven't decided if I'll mix up the strips for each character - making it more like a puzzle. If I work my strips right, when all the characters are assembled, it'd be time to go. Thinking Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, maybe Pluto.

Jan

[Mickey 101]

We use a chalkboard on an easel to note how many days until :mickey:. Our normal starting point is 100 days, even if the trip is planned further out than that. All of us get into it and the excitement really builds. :party::party:

Birnbaum's Guide For Kids by Kids also has ideas we've used for the last ten days of the countdown, like watching a Disney movie, planning your park itinerary and making a special Disney meal. One year, we made a decorated Minnie Mouse cake......time intensive, but well worth the effort.

[teambricker04]

I have done a trip count down like a store bought advent calendar. I used two 8.5x11 sheets of photo paper and put squares with pictures of our destination (WDW) in each square then I used the same template of squares to put numbers on and then a big picture in the background and cut on three sides of each square before glueing (gluing?) the sheets together. Then we opened on square a day. A lot of work? Yeah probably, but it was fun to open (and I like putzy projects like that.) Just have to remember not to glue over your little squares!

I don't even remember what program I used, but I am sure you could do it in almost anything including excel.