These days, there is nothing that makes my family happier than a good Disney countdown calendar and a little friendly competition to go with it! For our last Disney vacation, my kids asked for a Jeopardy-style countdown and, although it was a bit time-consuming to get everything organized and created for it, it was well worth the effort. We all had so much fun and the kids especially enjoyed trying to outsmart one another with each trivia question. It should not have come as a surprise, then, when they pitched the idea of another gameshow-inspired countdown for our Disneyland vacation. And they were adamant that the theme of our next calendar be another family favorite, Wheel of Fortune.
I thought the most challenging part of our Wheel of Fortune countdown would be to create the wheel itself. My engineering-minded husband, however, is quite savvy when it comes to building most anything. So, I asked him to make a wheel for me, and within days my wish was granted! He traced a circle (about 3 feet in diameter) onto a large cardboard box. Once the circle was cut, he secured it to a cake turntable with duct tape. He traced 16 long triangles onto poster board in a variety of colors; and once they were cut, he arranged them evenly around the circle and taped them to the cardboard. He marked each triangle with a different point value; and, for the spokes, he carefully twisted screws into the cardboard at regular intervals around the perimeter of the wheel. And just like that, we had ourselves a wheel!
With the wheel complete, my husband handed the reigns back over to me so that I could put the finishing touches on our countdown game. I traced and cut 30 Mickey Mouse silhouettes from construction paper, marked them with numbers 1 through 30, and then laid them around the outside of the wheel.
Then it was time to create 30 Disney-themed categories, with a corresponding word puzzle for each:
And, last but not least, we devised the rules and structure for our countdown competition. We decided that each day the kids would take turns spinning the wheel, and the point value of that day’s game would be determined by the triangle that stopped in front of that day’s Mickey. I would choose a word puzzle at random, write the category on a large dry erase board along with the blank dashed lines indicating each letter in the answer to the puzzle, and then the kids would take turns guessing letters.
Whoever guessed the word correctly first received that day’s designated points. And at the end of 30 days, the winner with the most points would be rewarded with bragging rights (at least until the next countdown!) AND a shirt I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to find online. It was like a sign from Mickey Mouse himself that this countdown was meant to happen!
The game was so close every step of the way, with a new leader almost daily. But, in the end, my oldest son edged out the competition and came out on top in our first ever Wheel of Fortune countdown! He proudly accepted his new shirt and the elite status of Wheel Of Fortune Champion. And as for the rest of us – well, we were still winners no matter what because the next day we were headed to Disneyland!
