I personally think hand-written Thank You cards are so lovely to receive. Each family will have their own rules on these, but we send them to people who have been kind enough to send us something, but who we haven’t been able to thank in person.
Each child has their own struggles and ability when it comes to hand writing and composition. It’s important to stay within their comfort range when it comes to Thank You notes, or you’re going to put them off. So by that I mean … don’t ask a 5 year old to fill both sides of a card. Sometimes a beautiful drawing with just 1-2 sentences is the absolute business!
I find the biggest stumbling block with children writing hand written letters, is the content … and to know they don’t need to write a thesis. If you haven’t yet, do have a read of one of my previous posts:
Fun Letter Writing Skills For Children
The Content
Keep it chatty
Keep it simple
Keep it relevant
Children need to feel there’s no wrong way to do it. Do encourage them to let their minds wander to the random and the quirky. And importantly, don’t worry about spelling and grammar. This is about fun!
DON’T TRY TO DO TOO MANY CARDS IN ONE SITTING!
If they have lots of cards and letters to do, stagger it over a few days if needs be.
Ask them questions to help guide them through what they might like to say. Obviously they need to say thank you, but then it’s so lovely for the recipient to know a little bit more about your child, their interests and what they’ve been up to!
DON’T WORRY ABOUT GRAMMAR OR SPELLING!
They’re not at school, and in this instance, a happy communication is far more important than a lesson in ‘correct English’.
So, key points could be:
- Thank you for ‘X’
- What did Aunty Jean give you?
- What did you do for your birthday / Christmas?
- What’s your favourite thing to do in the whole wide world?
- What don’t you like doing?
- I hope you are well
- Sign off
So a very simple Thank You note could go something like this …
Dear Aunty Jean,
Thank you so much for the books / voucher etc. I had 7 friends to my birthday party which is 2 days before Christmas Eve and we had ice-cream. I like skateboarding but I really don’t like doing jobs at home. I hope you had a lovely Christmas,
love from
Jimmy
Obviously the older they are, or the easier they find creative writing – the longer and easier the note will be.
You could buy in some illustrated cards especially, but I prefer to keep a stash of blank cards at home, for any of us to use for whatever purpose. And using them for ‘Thank You’ cards is one of them.
The front of the cards can be decorated at any time. One of my kids loves drawing, and can whip up a really lovely sketch quite quickly. The middle one struggles hugely, and thinks nothing he can create is worthy of anything. The third LOVES colouring in scribble pictures. I scribble on the front, and he colours in the various shapes … to varying standards, and he loves it!
For the older child, Scribble Pictures again, or Circle Doodles are brilliant! Even better … illustrate a few of your cards for future use. So then after Christmas and Birthdays, you can just concentrate on the writing bit.
I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago but I didn’t pin it, so I can’t remember who I got the idea from! So, huge apologies to whoever thinks I’ve plagiarised their idea – I probably have.
Anyway – all you need is something round (or square I guess), a pen and some paper. I did this one in the back of Elfie’s notebook while at the hairdressers, so I’m blaming the wobbles on them.
Then get doodling…
Enjoy and have fun!
***
You may also like to see other Crafts & Activities including:
Fun Letter Writing Skills For Children
3D Handprints
Candle Dripping
Handwriting Practice On The Sly
***
Download your FREE Guides To Common Christmas Conundrums
“The best Christmas idea ever.” – Charlie Condou (Actor)
***
“These were the best things I have ever (and I mean ever) ordered!!
I’ve never seen the magic or happiness last so long x”
– Jolene (August 2017)
***
If your child believes in Father Christmas and you want to keep the magic for as long as possible, There are DIFFERENT and NEW! Christmas Letters each year! You can preorder these for Christmas 2017 for dispatch from September.
***
***
Fairy & Tooth Fairy Letters
Fairy letters from a world of dragons (who set fire to your lunch by mistake), Mystery Gardens (with changing adventures inside), Magical Potion Fairies, Secret Underground Passageways, Magical Tree Bark, Time Travel … and more.
***
Dummy Fairy Letters are available too!
Come and join us on Facebook, or find us over on Christmas Traditions & Magic For Children for all year round festive chat.
To receive my blog posts, please sign up at the right hand side of this page or for Product or Christmas News and promotions from the International Elf Service, please sign up at the bottom of the page.
Emily x
This is such a fab idea and the end product looks so effective. Definitely going to have a new way of passing the time during boring meetings now! #SundayStars
Ooh now yes – in meetings is a great place to do circle doodles! x