Every day my soon-to-be 5 year old asks, “How many days is it till my birthday?” We’re down to 12. When it was exactly 14 it was easy, two weeks from that day, but other days I guess or fake it. “About 20,” I remember saying.

Well, it’s obviously important to her. I thought maybe we needed something visual to help us both keep track, a birthday countdown! write my essay

These printable balloons are the perfect way to count down the days to a child’s birthday.

Here’s the directions for making your own birthday balloon countdown:

1. Download the printable Birthday Balloon Countdown

2. Have your birthday kid color the balloons. (If you want to skip this step, you could print the balloons on different colors of paper to start with).

3. Cut balloons. This is really good fine motor skill practice for kids, so let them give it a shot! It doesn’t have to be perfect.

4. We cut 12-16″ pieces of string to tape to the back of each balloon. We used colorful thread so it would stand off against her white bedroom door.

5. Tape up to a surface. We used a green masking tape which sticks well but comes off easily.

6. Start the countdown! My daughter wanted her special rainbow one to be the day of her birthday. I was planning on it being the one that says, “Happy Birthday” but I like her idea better.

Each morning when she wakes up we’ll take off one balloon until it’s her special day!

By the way, the balloons on this printable can be used for more that just a countdown! Feel free to tape them all over a co-workers door on their birthday, or use them as a backdrop in birthday photo booth. If you do, we’d love to see your ideas! Link back to this post for the pdf.

Please do not post or redistribute the pdf. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.