Monday, January 29, 2007

Making Do on Mondays: Thank You!

I'm a big believer in writing out Thank You cards for gifts received. And I try to impart this concept to my children. Gratitude and graciousness are underrated nowadays... but as for me and my children, we will always try to show appreciation for gifts or nice gestures done to us.

Now getting a child to sit down and write a proper thank you card may be like pulling teeth so here are some ideas I've discovered that may make this "chore" be a bit more fun for everyone.


  • In the pre-writing stage, it may be an nice gesture just to take a simple photo of your child holding (or wearing) the gift and write "Thank You" on the back yourselves before sending it off to someone. Everyone likes to see their gifts used and appreciated.

  • You can get a large piece of butcher paper if you have multiple children and have each child write his or her own little message on one part of it... or draw a picture on one part of it to create a Thank You Collage from the whole family. Little kids can be encouraged to clip pictures from magazines or little shapes from construction paper and glue it on the paper... the more color the better. This would be a fun little twist to receive I would think.

  • Make a fun box just for writing letters. Include homemade or bought stationary, stamps, stickers, pre-printed address return labels with the child's name, envelopes and fun colored pens. This makes the idea of writing a thank you card much more palatable if they get to be creative doing it.

  • Have you discovered personalized stamps yet? You can create your own REAL photo stamps to be used as postage! It's brilliant fun and would really get kids excited about writing thank you cards! What's more is that by buying a sheet of these kinds of stamps... you could have a wonderful, unique gift idea.

  • Save all your child's pictures and artwork in a folder that you don't have room for on your fridge or feel guilty throwing away. You can use these in a quick pinch by having the child simply sign the back of it with a little note.

  • Set a good example! Kids should see the importance of being thoughtful and gracious by watching YOU write out thank you cards.

-Ellie

Labels:


one of us :: 12:00 AM :: 1 Comments

---------------oOo---------------