Hellobee

Our kids are very fortunate to have many people in their lives who want to give them toys, books and clothes. We want to make sure that our kids show gratitude for these gifts and provide a proper thank you. Here are some fun ideas for thank you notes from toddlers and babies:

Let the kids fingerpaint their own cards. When Lion was an infant (about five months), we would put him in the (dry) bathtub with some blank cards and finger paint and let him go to town. We let them dry, wrote our thank you on the inside and mailed them off. It was both a fun winter day activity to do with Lion and a way to get him involved in the making of the cards. It’s perfect for young babies. Lion has now moved into colored pencils, crayons and markers, so he may use other mediums to make his card.

Decorate cards with stickers and stamps. Toddlers love playing with stickers. You could get a package of thank you stickers from a craft store and also some other stickers (holiday stickers, stickers of your child’s favorite activities, stickers depicting people, pretty much anything!) and let your child decorate the cards.

Handprint and footprint cards. Always a popular approach, and one that works for infants, you could dip your child’s hands and feet into some fingerpaint and use the prints for the front of a card.

Photo from Happy Hooligans

Wax resist cards. I saw these recently and think they are a great idea for toddlers. You use a white crayon to write “Thank You” then have your toddler paint over the entire card with watercolors. The wax from the crayon will resist the watercolor paint and show throw.

Write thank you on a chalkboard and take a picture of the kids holding it. You could then print out the photo on cardstock and write the thank you note on the back.

Ask your toddler why he likes the gift. At 2.5 years old, Lion can now verbalize so much and I think it’s adorable when he explains to me why he likes certain toys or activities. Toddlers say the cutest things and I think our families would enjoy hearing Lion’s appreciation in his own words, so we could we might write down his responses in the cards. You could also videotape your toddler saying thank you and explaining why he likes it; my boss brought back Lion a panda bear puppet when she visited China and she loved the thank you video message from our little guy (who, instead of saying “thank you” to my boss, exclaimed, “Thank you, Panda Bear!”).