Counting Down to the Days That Matter
When your kid proclaims his own day (and the merchandising requirements)
This year, while looking at the calendar, our son proclaimed he needs his own Day. Not his birthday - he's got one of those already. Just a general day where we celebrate him and all his creative writings.
According to him, we all need to buy his branded toys ahead of this Day to make sure we celebrate it properly. He's got the merchandising figured out.
Naturally, he wanted to know when it was coming. How many days until his Day?
That's how the Countdown feature came about.
Daily Adventure already has calendar integration - it announces what's happening today. "You have swimming at four" or "It's a school day" or "Grandma's visiting this weekend." But countdown is different because it builds anticipation. It starts days before an event and counts down: "There are 3 days until Christmas!" or "Just 1 more day until your birthday!" or, in our case, "5 days until your special Day!"
You add countdown events in the calendar section at dailyadventure.io/calendar. Pick the event name, set the date, and choose how many days before you want the countdown to start. Then Daily Adventure includes it in your child's morning greeting as the day approaches. For example, if you add a countdown for "Emma's Birthday" on December 25th and set it to start 7 days before, Emma will hear "There are 7 days until your birthday!" in her morning story, then 6 days, then 5 days, and so on.
We've limited it to 3 active countdowns at a time because they're all narrated in the morning greeting and we don't want it to be overwhelming. Three feels about right - usually a birthday, a holiday, and maybe something special like a trip or, in our son's case, his Day where we apparently need to have purchased the appropriate branded merchandise.
You can countdown to anything that matters to your child. Birthdays are obvious, but also holidays like Christmas or Diwali or whatever you celebrate, school holidays starting, family trips, a special day at school, visiting relatives, or their self-proclaimed Day with all the merchandising requirements.
This is live today for everyone. Just head to dailyadventure.io/calendar and add your countdown events. Our son now knows exactly how many days until his Day, and we've been reminded about the toy purchasing timeline.