Thank you cards
I considered categorizing these thank you cards under “Frugal ideas”, but then I realized that the ink of printing these pictures probably cost more than the pack of cards I buy at the Dollar Tree. So, a teaching lesson this will be!
Before The Flash’s recent birthday party, I considered avoiding the whole gift-giving thing. Heaven knows the kids have too many toys. That is probably why when his toys go to time-out they don’t even care. They never try to earn them back. The toys often just get donated due to the kids’ nonchalance.
However, a big dose of laziness prevented me from contacting all party guests and telling them to forgo any gifts they had already bought. Hopefully, Marvel Girl will forgive me if I DO tell her guests to forget about gifts.
When present time came, the gift giver sat in the special Lightning McQueen chair (it was much coveted). I took pictures when the gift was opened. Again, this was mostly due to laziness as Professor X was obviously not writing down which gifts were from whom, and I couldn’t run off to get paper and pen. These pictures came in handy and I ended up using them for more than just record keeping.
I printed the picture of The Flash with the gift-giver. Then wrote words I wanted The Flash to copy onto thin strips of paper. I taped the word strips onto the paper with the printed photo in the corner. I made sure to leave space for The Flash to copy the words. Each horizontal line that you see in my scan is the top of my thin strip of paper. For some reason, the bottom of my strip is invisible on the scan, but rest assured it is located immediately below my handwriting.
The blank space created between the strips of paper (with my writing on it) made sure that The Flash’s writing stayed in a straight line, didn’t get too big or small, and he could use my writing as a model without needing to shift his eyes to a whole different sheet of paper.
Once he finished copying my words, I would take my slips of paper off of the card (which I did not do for the scan so you could see what I was trying to describe). After removing my word strips, only The Flash’s words remain!
The cards make him look like a super-star writer. Added bonus? I snuck some writing practice into his Thank You cards!
Awesome!
Oh. I get it.
VERY cool idea CC. Very cool.
Now THAT is genius and very thoughtful.
You mean standing over my kids’ shoulder shouting to write the next letter is NOT the most efficient way? Good to know.
Very cool!
You are just SO STINKIN’ SMART!!! What a great idea! I so wish my head turned everyday, simple things into teaching ideas. But it doesn’t. Good thing I can always come here for inspiration!
PS. What do you do at a birthday party where no one gives the birthday kid anything? Like how do you get your kid to be okay with it? I’m intrigued by this idea because I agree, our kids have WAY too much stuff!! And they keep getting MORE!
One of the best ideas I’ve ever heard about thank you cards (except this one of course) is to not let the kids play with the gifts until the notes are written.
Very smart! You are such a fun, tricky mommy!
I wish I had thought of this when mine were younger!
Becky
What a lovely idea. I always have encouraged my children to write thankyou notes for gifts received, but your idea should make it a bit easier for them.
That’s a great idea! I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future!!
Great idea. I like you you personalized each card!
You are brilliant!
Great idea….
robin@heartofwisdom.com
http://www.heartofwisdom.com/heartathome/
Awesome Idea. I insist that the kids write thank you notes before they can play with their toys or if they have a friend over.
So smart. I love it.
Looks great! We’ll definitely try this when our little bean is bigger. Have a nice weekend!