something to do with the kids to help the waiting

[hockey mom 94]

We have 18 days until we leave . Tonight I sat down with my boys and we made a "count down chain" I remember making them when in grade school for Christmas. We cut out 18 slips of paper and decorated them with different pictures, mostly Disney of course and wrote on them 1day left, 2 days left... and so on then linked them all together. The kids will take turns tearing off one each day..when they are all gone.... yippee its time to hit the road for the airport!!

 

[stacy6552]

I milk the trip waiting for all its worth! My 8 year old is currently earning disney dollars to spend any way he wants. the most effective thing is giving him money for behaving at the mall or grocery store.

 

[Colexi's Mom]

I was also going to make a countdown chain. One of our friends did this for their trip, and I think it is a great idea!!

 

[jenjie]

We've been counting down for 2 months! Only 10 days to go, yippee! We did a variation on this theme. I didn't really want to deal with an ever-growing chain for this long, so we made a chart.

We made enough squares on a sheet of paper and numbered them backwards. Put some Disney clipart at the top of the page as a reminder. Each day one of my kids gets a turn to put a Disney-themed sticker in the next square. Now that we're getting closer, they enjoy counting how many squares are left and get to develop some math skills too (they are ages 2 and 4 so it's a big deal to them, lol).

 

[crazymomof4]

I was worried my 5 yo would be bored in EPCOT so we put the names of the countries on slips of paper and he picked one each week just before our trip. That week we went to the library and got books, videos, etc. about that country. I showed him all the pics. I had of that country's WDW pavillion. We learned a few words in the language of that country, listened to it's music (if available) and ate foods native to the land. It was educational and he was more interested when we toured the World Showcase. Since your trip is so close you could do an abbreviated version of this.
Funny story: A few months after the trip we were w/ friends and a show about Italy came on the TV. My still 5yo blurts out, "Look Mom, the colliseum!" The friends looked at me like I had some kind of genius on my hands. I told them it was all bc. of a Disney trip.

 

[jenjie]

Crazymomof4 that is a fantastic idea! I love it! One other thing I'll have to look into, we have a see-n-say toy that is geographical. It has a bunch of different countries, it tells short facts about them and how to say hello, thank you, stuff like that, in each language. I could start with that and then move on to the internet for some more info if they're interested.

 

[LMHB]

I don't know if this is along the same lines, but we watch the Disney video (the promotional one!) when we start talking about our trip. My oldest loves to point out what he will ride when he is there! It is a lot of fun

 

[noabeliv]

When we got about a month away from our trip, my kids and I put 30 "Disney type" toys on the mantle over the fireplace. We had things like mickey, minnie, pooh, etc. figurines or beanies. Every day one of the kids (we have 4) took down a toy. They had fun picking out the things to put up there and also choosing which one to take down every day. Hope you have a great trip!

 

[savs]

Originally posted by stacy6552
I milk the trip waiting for all its worth! My 8 year old is currently earning disney dollars to spend any way he wants. the most effective thing is giving him money for behaving at the mall or grocery store.

That's funny that you said that Stacy....we did that also for our 2 boys before we went on our last trip. We went to the Disney store and bought 60.00 worth. That way for the month leading up to the trip they had a chance to earn one everyday before we left.

My 5 yr old felt pretty important to buy something he really wanted with his own money....and of course the CM made a big deal out of him earning all that money

We also did the chain the one year and then a different time we made a train instead. It went from one boys room to the other and had all the days left written on them. They got so excited seeing it go from one room to the other knowing it was getting closer to the time they would beable to ride the train(monarail) to see Mickey.