Works for Me Wednesday: A Child's Thank You Notes

I've been very religious about writing thank yous since Hubs and I were engaged. I guess that I grew up enough then to realize that I needed to hand write a note of thankfulness. I've thought it was important enough to pass on to my daughter.

A few weeks back, I was reading this post from JMom at Lots of Scotts. I thought it was an excellent idea to type all the thank yous out, then hand them off to K- to hand write into the cards themselves.

So, during the Friday snowstorm that wasn't, K- and I went over the thank you list. I typed word for word what she wanted to say. Here are some of K-'s thank you statements:

Dear Aunt Holly, [and sibs],

Thank you for my clock and my tree necklace. I love my clock and I do a pattern. Planets, man on the moon, the moon and the world. I love my family!

Dear Beth,

Thank you! My daddy wanted to trade me something else for R2D2 and I said NO! I love it!

Shelley, K- and W-,

Thank you for my books and thank you for my Barbie thing. I colored it a little bit. I love you!

Do you still have the owl barf?

[They chose one of our White Elephant gifts. My husband, the naturalist, put owl pellets in as his White Elephant. The funny thing is that my cousin is always the one that puts the odd gifts in.]

Jenny, Jacob and B-,

I love my Polly Pocket set. I was sick [on Christmas] and I was playing with my Polly. I’m feeling better. I love you!

Dear E-,

I like you and American Girl Doll blue dress and the Barbie with the mask. I hope you come back home safely [she is moving back in June] and I miss you. I love you!

And finally, the heartbreaking thank you to friends that will soon be moving--

Dear E-, L- and C-,

I don’t want you to leave. I’m going to miss you. Thank you for my Barbies. I like my new shirt. I like to play with you and we’re going to come again.

Not only teaching thankfulness, but teaching our daughter to express it in her own words on a nice little note.

Works for us!

Smiles in my day:
- Having a shifted schedule this week allowed me to attend the PTA meeting at K-'s school. There were only 7 of us in attendance, which was kind of sad. We had a very laid back meeting and found out some wonderful things.
- First, K-'s teacher has been voted as TEACHER OF THE YEAR! I'm so happy for Mrs. H-. We love her!!!
- K- will be getting a new building. The tentative date of start of construction will be Fall 2011. It should be done in a year and a half - 2 years time. It will still give her a few years to enjoy it.
- The best news of that is that her elementary school students will not be temporarily relocated downtown. "Oh thank God!" is what came out of my mouth and the principal agreed. Since the present school has to be torn down to give the space for the new building, the children will be relocated to the middle school building which is 11 blocks up the opposite direction. We'll still be able to walk to school, though it will be a little longer walk. That's okay. The new middle school is being built now, so those kids will have moved next door to their new building before our kids get there.
- K-'s school ranks 10th out of 300 participating schools in the ENTIRE United States for the reading program they do with the children. Each grading period, each child is expected to have 100 reading steps (15 minutes per step) accomplished. If they are behind, the kids are assigned to participate in the principal's Recess Reader's Club. Mr. B- sits and reads to the kids to bring them back on track with the school goals. Once they are back to the goal, they can leave the Recess Reader's Club. Notes are sent home to the parents and they are fully aware.
- Our principal is such an involved guy. I mean really. I don't recall anything like it in all the years I attended school.
- K- counted to 100 for her teacher today and only forgot number 22. Poor kid! We told her that she did well. I believe that Wednesday is counting by 5's and 10's. K- has the 10's. 5's are a little trickier for her. She's a great student and is always sad if she misses something. We go over the problem with her and let it go. We don't want her beating herself up.

Have a great day!