Now that the Christmas gifts have all been ripped open, the boxes shoved under the couch, and the paper crumpled up and stashed in the corner, it’s time to write the thank you notes. My mother-in-law instilled in her children that the gift never even gets played with before the thank you note is written. Consequently, she raised 6 children who are excellent thank you note writers. We’ve tried to pass this on to our own children. And by we, I mean Fiddledaddy, because it is not unusual for me to completely drop the thank you note ball.
Thankfully, my children inherited their father’s letter writing gene, and they will immediately put pen to paper and craft the most beautifully written notes of gratitude and thanks that I’ve ever seen. I’d love to be able to say that I’m doing something write right, but it’s not me. I truly believe that a lot of their letter and note writing skills have been developed over the last couple of years as they’ve corresponded with their respective American Heritage Girl’s pen pals.
I was awfully proud this week when both of my girls, with no prompting whatsoever, wrote lovely thank you notes to their grandparents in Texas. They addressed their own envelopes, pilfered stamps from my desk, and then raced out to the mailbox to put the flag up.
What I have concluded is that note writing is a habit best developed early. And not only does it demonstrate good manners, but it also teaches a sense of responsibility.
Mom’s Homeroom has a video discussion and demonstration that clearly lays out the hows and whys of getting your children to write thoughtful thank you notes. The steps are very easy to follow, and present a step by step approach should your child suffer from writer’s block. Click on this link to get to the videos on writing tips, and the thumb nail for the Thank-You Notes Done Write video is at the bottom. These are excellent videos to give you some guidance to draw out the inner-writer in your child.
There are also some really well written articles referenced at the end of the video that cover letter writing skill building and they can be found here.
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When I was growing up and received a gift I too had to write a thank you before using/spending the gift. While it was a chore at first, I grew to love writing thank you notes and great took pride in creating or purchasing beautiful cards. And pens? I’m still addicted! I’ve never met a pen I didn’t love. I instituted the same guidelines with our son, now twenty, beginning when the only contribution he could make was signing his name. These days he almost always receives only cash and the rule is that he can’t spend it until he writes and mails a thank you. It’s great motivation!
The fact that so few people write handwritten letters anymore saddens me, so this post delights me beyond words!
I have completely failed in this area of parenting! When the girls were little, I did better with it, having those cute fill-in-the-blank thank you cards (Dear ____, thank you for the _____…you get the idea.) When they got old enough to write, they still did ok. When they got old enough that it was their full on responsibilty, I didn’t follow through, and I’m not sure that a thank you card 3 months after the fact is actually appreciated. Thanks for reminding me of the importance though. I think I will issue the assignment today and then ban all electronic devices and reading (yes, I have to ground my children from BOOKS) in order for it to actually get done.
I may just send them all an email with that link first though
I grew up writing thank you notes as well. I have taught my son to write thank you notes starting when he just drew a picture for the person. In fact that is what Charlie and I will be doing tomorrow – writing our thank you notes.
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