Saturday, September 19, 2009

Toddlers Telling Time

Today's obsession is how best to mark the passage of time while Daddy is gone. 


The first strategy involves apothecary jars filled with jelly beans (1 for each day of the deployment).  Each day, the child gets to eat 1 jelly bean.  To avoid fighting, we'd need a jar for each child. 

A fun thing to do before my husband leaves would be researching which jelly bean flavor is each child's favorite. Then, each jar could be filled with their favorite flavor bean!  I can imagine my son choosing the buttered popcorn flavor because he often eats popcorn with Daddy.

The second strategy is a paper chain.  Each day, one link is removed from the chain.



I like these because they're patriotic without being over-the-top.












These are gorgeous, but wedding-themed.  I'd have to custom print the paper with messages from Daddy for each day and markers like "Halfway there!"



My final conclusion?  I need a better way to cut my scrapbook paper with these cute patterned edges!  (The little scissors never work very well for me.) 

What ideas do you have to mark the passage of time?

5 comments:

  1. Totally great ideas!! What about each child's top 3 flavors (like, in case the butter popcorn flavor started to get old...we don't want him to resent popcorn w/ daddy events! :)).
    Or here's one for ya (in case you have about sixty consecutive hours on your hands :)). You could have a weekly (daily? have that many photos?) surprise of a picture of the kids w/ Daddy and a note from him. Maybe a small gift w/ it if it's a weekly thing, like a Sun. night thing or whatever. (Think advent calendar, perhaps).

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  2. Thanks! Another idea submitted is to tie little green army men together (like a paper chain). Each day, you'd cut one off and put it in a cardboard "house" to represent him being one day closer to coming home.

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  3. Such a cute idea. How fun for the kids to keep track of time. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. cute idea. I am sure the kids enjoy this!

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