Countdown Calendar – Crafting with Kids

The twins are turning 6 next month, I can’t believe how quickly time flies by. They are also starting 1st grade in a couple of weeks.
This means that every day I get asked ‘how many more days to go?’ Every. Single. Day.
So yesterday, I suggested to them that we make a paper chain and they could take off a link each day until school goes back, and also until their birthday.
Then I thought to myself, well I’d been wanting to make a year-round calendar for the longest time, so off to the thrift shop I headed with a vague idea of what I wanted to do.
Now I know I normally bring you crafting ‘with’ kids ideas, but today’s idea is more a crafting ‘for’ kids one instead, although they could definitely help out painting the pegs, and doing the stamping.
The beauty of this calendar is that you don’t need a new one for every holiday, you can use it throughout the year for all the important dates, you just make a new tag and hang it on the hook.
What you need:
This is very simple to make. I scrubbed and dried the block of wood. While it was drying I painted the pegs and set those aside to dry also. While everything was drying I attached little stickers to the acrylic tags and popped a piece of string through to make a loop for hanging.
Once the wood and pegs were dry, I attached the pegs using a hot glue gun. Using a set of letter stamps, I stamped the saying across the top, and then using the number stamps I stamped the numbers counting down from 30 to 1.
Hang the frame at a height that will be easy for the kids to move the tag each day.
I’m sure somebody out there will be wondering why I used pegs. Leading up to the holidays and during their birthday week we like to give them a little treat as part of their countdown. Yes most holidays I am one of those parents who have the cardboard countdown with the little chocolates inside. With this countdown calendar, you can attach a little treat, toy, or candy to each day using the peg.
Happy crafting!
2 Comments
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Love this, Tonya! Where did you get those acrylic tags? Very cool.
Natalie, I found them in Michael’s by the scrapbooking section. You can see by the pic above it comes with quite a few in the packet, plenty to cover every holiday and occasion possible :).