Thank You Note Etiquette for Kids
My kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE office supplies, particularly pens. They were thrilled that Rose Art Write Dudes offered me some pens and pencils to try out when I said that I would use them for Thank You notes since my youngest needed to write Thank You notes for his recent birthday party. My rule is No Gifts or Thank You notes. He opted for gifts. Which means thank you notes. Painfully extracted.
He is distracted by “shiny objects.” This pencil set came with putter erasers and a golf ball and he decided to make a game using a roll of Scotch Tape.
I used the group photo from his Laser Tag party to make the thank you note. He only had to write his friend’s name and the gift to complete the thank you note. I’m nice that way!
It took him two sittings over two weeks to get his notes done. He opted for a pencil to correct his spelling errors.
PickyKidPix is especially fond of pens particularly dry erase and permanent ink markers. I have no idea why. She grabbed them but she needs to share them with her sister because …. now we have to do Christmas thank you notes!!!
I received a box of Write Dudes pens and pencils to try out much to the delight of my children. My opinions are my own. All I can say is that I barely got my hands on any of the writing implements. My kids absconded with them immediately when they arrived. I was only able to photograph them before they were used. Notice how the packages are ripped open? PickyKidPix owns most of the pens sold at Staples. She says that Write Dudes are pretty good. That’s a high compliment for her!
We still need to do Christmas Thank You notes. PickyKidPix might use her new sticker maker machine or her Cuddlebug to make embossed thank you notes for us to use. She will probably charge us though. My kids discussed it and they decided that they each had to write a thank you note for every present they received to their grandmothers, aunts, and uncles. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!
How about you? Are your kids good about writing thank you notes or it is a painful process like mine? Do you make your own thank you notes? Please share!
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We ask our boys (ages 9&11) to write thank you notes, and it is sometimes painful but we, too, try to make it fun. They both like to type on the computer, so sometimes they design thank you notes there. Otherwise they use colorful markers or pens and colorful cards I keep on hand because I love stationery. The boys think it’s kind of cool to use my stuff (especially black cards with shiny silver pens–reminds them of Star Wars).
Hi Renee,
I love your ideas!!! Black cards with silver pens does sound fun!!!! I don’t have those but I must get some! What a great idea to use the computer as well … and an easier solution for kids who find writing tiring! What program do you use to design the thank you notes?
We have two birthdays in the next month so I may have to order myself some of these cards for the kids! Thanks Mia.
Hi Emily,
I hope it helps! I love those fill in the blank cards but you can make you own just as easily if you don’t want to spend $ for them. Renee also had a great idea to have the kids use the computer for thank you notes so maybe they can help you design the cards since your kids are little. We have a pile of thank you Christmas notes to write and I’m hoping to get them done before we go back to school in two days. Ugh!
The golf set is a fun idea!
We usually have them call to say thanks; love the fill in the blank cards reminds of how my mother would write out the notes for me to copy.
Hi Ann,
My son had fun with the golf set and it was great because it doubles as erasers. Perhaps he had a little too much fun because his thank you notes too two sittings! Now we have to tackle Xmas thank yous!
How lovely of your mom to model thank you notes for you! My mom used to write out addresses to show me how to address her holiday cards when I was little. I remember that it was a big deal to get their titles correct. My dad was a professor so I had to get the Dr. versus Professor correct. (If the friend had a Phd, I had to use the Dr. title.)
My kids are pretty good about it, so far, but they are still young. Those sound like some fun office supplies for kids!
Hi Maryanne,
My kids live office supplies more than most kids I suspect because they would take a trip to Staples as a reward over a trip to an ice cream store or a candy store. My middle child wants to open a Staples Superstore competitor when she grows up and she is also the one hoarding most of the Write Dude goodies.
It’s great that you are teaching your kids to write thank yous and that they actually enjoy doing it! We are going to try to get the Christmas thank yous out today. My girls spent hours making fancy Thank You stationery using an embossing machine and freehand art using markers but they’ve only created 2 blank cards so far so we have a ways to go.
it is *so* important that children learn to be grateful and express that gratitude. thanks so much for sharing my post. sharing this one as well. i love how you personalized them with the picture from the party!
Hi Andiejaye,
Thank you so much for your kind comment. It’s such a hurdle to get my son to write the thank you notes so having an easy one did help a lot! And it was just a iPhone photo that I emailed to myself and uploaded into Microsoft Word. So simple. Our biggest challenge is keeping track of who gave what — both to write the list and then not to lose the list before the notes are done!
My children had notecards with their names on them, and had to write thank you notes for everything. As a result, as older teens they write them without thinking. My college student just lamented that she just ran out of cards and had to use a sheet of paper to write a note for something she was sent at college. It does pay off, so hang in there!
Hi Ms. Yingling,
I love personalized notecards. What a great idea to make them for your kids! It makes thank you note writing feel special! I’m glad that you had your kids do them as well. I do think it’s a good, old-fashioned habit. And probably note writing for this generation will start to feel special to recipients what with all the digital communication!
I took forever for my son to finish the thank you cards. This makes the task a lot managable. 🙂
Wonderful, my son’s Birthday party is coming up and will make sure to take a group photo for thank yous too!
Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
Hi Maggy,
Mine was just an iPhoto and in fact, he cried for most of the photos when someone’s laser tag gun hit his head. Those guns are seriously heavy. So, I ended up using just the first photo even though not all the kids were looking at the camera. Oh well. It was good enough. Thank you so much for hosting the link up!