We took our 4 year old to WDW in May and this worked so well I wanted to share it with someone. I was really concerned about the gimmees. I bought a child-size fanny pack (worked well, it looked just like Daddy's) and filled it with money for the penny press machines. We took about $10 in quarters and pennies to go with them and Disney has a special book that holds these pennies. He was so interested about finding the penny presses in the gift shops that he never once asked for anything!! I was so surprised, we finally had to ask him what he wanted to take home besides his pennies. It made the vacation alot more fun because we weren't constantly fighting with him about getting something and he still loves to look at them! Don't get me wrong, we brought home a Pluto hat and a giant Mickey Mouse and one of those wonderful Wirly gig things, we had to bring something home.:cool:

What a cute idea! Thanks for sharing. :)

Another "project" that works well is the autograph books. It keeps kids on their toes to look out for various characters.

This is a great idea!!

My three girls are already into the "pressed pennies"...we have a book already filled up....and are working on a 2nd.

I can't give this credit to me though...my #1 daughter got her sisters involved...and they have more fun looking for the machines, and choosing which penny to get. :D

I am going to tell my oldest girl, about your fanny pack idea...she'l lthink its great...as do I!! :D

Yeah, the penny press is a fun thing to do. I like the idea of the fanny pack :) .

Something I have been trying lately to help with the gimmies is giving my smallest one three "tickets". If she whines or complains during the day, she loses a ticket. If she has any tickets left at the end of the day, she can use it to "buy" a small item or treat. This helps cut down the whining a lot and helps her build patience as she waits for the end of the day and decides what she would like to have.

She's always had at least one ticket left under this system. My oldest only get one ticket. ;)

On the autograph book, we had one of those too and I had bought a bunch of disney stickers before we left home so when we went back to the hotel that night we would put the stickers with the appropriate autograph. What stickers I couldn't find I had printed from a clip art site. The stickers with that characters autograph works great when he has to 'read' the autographs to anyone who will listen. It makes him feel great to be able to tell Papa 100 x's who is who in his auto. book!

Originally posted by mad4mky
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My three girls are already into the "pressed pennies"...we have a book already filled up....and are working on a 2nd.

A book for pressed pennies? Do they make these? I know they have them for normal coins- but not the oblong. Or do you adapt some other type of book? (thanks to everyone for the ideas by the way- I'm taking notes!!!)

mckat,
They have a book that is specially designed for pressed pennies with a section for pressed quaters. I have seen it at the register in the Candy Palace and at the registers in the Emporuim.

I have one :) It's made of a higher quality plastic material and the pockets are pretty sturdy (and will probably last forever if you don't take the coins out a lot). Mine is Disneyland specific, blue and has the Fab 5 on the front.

It's called a "pressed penny wallet".

Originally posted by mckat
A book for pressed pennies? Do they make these? I know they have them for normal coins- but not the oblong. Or do you adapt some other type of book? (thanks to everyone for the ideas by the way- I'm taking notes!!!)

We did buy a pressed Penny book at DLR.

While we were waiting in line one evening to eat at the Blue Bayou, two very nice gentlemen saw us looking over the pennnies, and they showed us their books. After dinner, we high-tailed it over to go buy some. :D

We bought our penny press book at the Disney Welcome Center in Orlando, Florida. It holds 36 pressed pennies and 6 pressed quarters. It is very durable, my son plays with it every day. I also saw them at Disney World on one of the carts that were on Main Street.

How much do the pressed penny books cost? My son has started a collection and would probably like something to display it in.

My son's pressed penny book from Six Flags still has the price tag on it and was $4.99. Disneyland's is a little nicer and I think we payed around $5.95 for it.

Our penny press book came from the welcome center outside Orlando and we paid $6.00 + tax.

We travel with our kids a whole lot. Long ago we set a rule that each girl can choose three things for the entire trip, with the understanding that financial resources are limited.

This works great and makes the girls really think about their choices. Because once you've bought something, you only have two more to go ...

Two things my wife and I have done to set a limit and also make sure our kids have a blast.

1. My wife loves to SHOP and watches out for clearance sales at the Disney store in our mall. When she finds cute little items that she knows the kids will like, she buys them and when we take our annual pilgrimage to DLR we give them the items throughout our stay.

2. Implemented last year with great success and will do it again this year... Each day of the 5 we're there, we give each child 10 disney dollars. They can spend it on anything they want. My oldest (6) also realized that she can save some each day and buy bigger items that she finds.