Reusable Count-down Chain

My 5-year-old loves to make count-down chains.  Truth be told, I really like them too.  However, when school ended and he wanted to make one for our vacation to Alaska later this summer I thought to myself, "That is going to take a lot of paper."  Paper that will be thrown away.  And then we'll have to make another one the next time there is something to count down.  So I came up with a really simple, re-usable "paper" chain.

Supplies:

felt . . . how much depends on how many rings you plan on making

Velcro coins . . .we used these and found them at Walmart

First, my son and I picked out the colors we wanted for our chain.  We used a random hodge podge of colors but I thought it would be fun to do a red, yellow, and blue one as well.

I decided that I wanted my strips to be 1 1/4 inches wide so I measured and cut... and then used that as my guide for the rest.  I wasn't really concerned about precision--just as long as they were close.  Next, I stuck my Velcro to the correct sides.  If you really wanted to make it secure you could go ahead and sew them as well.  To me it just wasn't worth the time.  (As long as you hold on to one side of the Velcro while you are taking them apart then they should stay secure.)

And finally, because I know myself and wouldn't want certain colors next to or too close to each other, I had my son hand the strips to me at random so I could link them.

Today we hung them in the kitchen . . . let the count-down begin!