After hearing this question asked multiple times on the same day, a day which was still over three weeks away from the oh-so-exciting train ride, I created the Train Chain.
You may remember the Train Chain from your childhood, although you would have most likely called it a Christmas Chain, or more generically, a Countdown Chain. Basically, it’s a chain of construction paper links, one per day until the Big Event happens.
Because toddlers are not very abstract people, and concepts of time are very abstract, we’re using this method currently, to field questions like, “Pop Pop coming ‘morrow?” “Gwandma coming today?” and the ever popular, “We go on twain ‘morrow, Mommy?”
I’ve written all the important happenings on the appropriate links. We tear off one every day. Definitely works for us!
(And if you’re totally mathematically challenged as I am, instead of labeling the links by how many days are left, label them according to the day of the month that they are to be torn off. I was terrified I’d miscount and accidentally tear off the Pop Pop chain a day early. T’would have been devastating. Simply devastating.)
(And then, also, labeling the links by the day they are to be torn off eliminates the accidental tearing off of two links in one day and the going of days without tearing off any link due to Mommy Brain.)
(But do make sure to keep an eye on little brothers while the chain is up.)
(Or this may happen)
(And no, he wasn’t in time-out. He pulled that chair over because he prefers comfortable mischief.)
This is a great idea. I have a toddler. I will remember this one. Good job!
What a fantastic idea! We are going to be making a chain tomorrow 🙂
You can’t expect a fellow to work his miscreant deeds AND stand up all day, now can you?
We’ve used chains of various sorts over the years, and now the older kids make them for the younger ones when they’re having difficulty with “how long until…” Funny how well it works! My older kids learned to count by saying “1…2…3…4…” days until (whatever).
Ok, we are SO going to do this, because if I hear “is it Halloween tonight Mommy?” one more time I might lose my mind.
Cute idea!
Makes an abstract idea so much more concrete for little ones.
Thanks for sharing.
what a great idea!
funny, i’ve never heard of using those to count down days. We always made those as decorations. 🙂 but I love your idea! I think we just might do that today. because Aunt Bethany is coming in a few days, and Grammie in a few weeks!!!
I did this several times when the kids were little. It definitely makes it more tangible for them. 😀
Happy WFMW!
Sherry
I’m the mean mommy who doesn’t tell him about exciting things ahead of time. But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I did the chain thing. Maybe I’ll try it sometime! Thanks!
We tend not to tell my stepdaughter about things ahead of time, either, like Wani. She obsesses over them and then that’s ALL we hear about, and there’s usually lots of crying.
If she lived with us all the time, we’d probably try the paper chains, though, to count stuff down. Sounds like it’d work pretty well, even though she’s not a toddler anymore.
Great idea!! TFS
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
Comfortable mischief…that’s hilarious!
Love this idea. Check out my blog to see why I need it.