Peachy Tip: Thank You Cards

Christmas wrappings have gone onto a better place, and the goodies inside them are now a part of TJ's daily playtime. The holidays are over and preschool classes have started up again. Yes, the time has come for thank-you cards.

I realize that according to Miss Manners, thank-you cards really should've gone in the mail the same week we received the gifts. But, I'm sure MM would agree, better late than never.

Up until a few months ago, I had been signing thank-you cards on behalf TJ since the little tike was born. But, after my first parent-teacher conference (can you believe it, this is for a two year old preschool class!), I got the idea to have TJ write his own thank-you letters.

You see, one of the two year "competencies" reported on is the ability to draw a straight line and a circle. The teacher tests each student by seating them and asking the child to draw a line and a circle. As the teacher explained that kids learn by observing first, and then imitating, I thought to myself, "Hey, even though TJ can't really write, he can learn by first pretending to write."

As I was driving back from the preschool, I was excited to go home and show TJ how to write thank-you cards.

First, I went back home and had a little talk with TJ. I said, "TJ, remember your birthday party?"

"Yes."

"Who was at your birthday party?" I wanted to bring to mind, the people we would be writing cards to. TJ started doing roll call of his friends. "That's right, Tyler, Hana, Avery, Aiden, Theo, ... and Jude were all at your birthday party. Remember, you got birthday gifts from your friends, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And when we get a gift, what do we say?"

"Thank you!"

"Yes, that right. Well, we are going on a special trip now. I am going to take you to the card store. And we are going to pick out some cards to say, 'Thank you!" to you friends. Sound like fun?!"

Off we were to our nearby Hallmark store. When we were there, I explained to him the mission we were on, again. Then, we made our way to the kids birthday party invitations section and found thank you cards.

There on the shelves were Batman, Hello Kitty, Thomas Train, and Mickey Mouse. I took one of each package and asked TJ, "Here are the thank-you cards. Which one do you want to get?"

TJ had a hard time choosing between Thomas Train and Mickey Mouse. Finally, he settled on Mickey, and we returned back home.

While the whole idea was fresh in his mind, I unpackaged the cards and sat us down at the table. I asked him to watch me as I wrote on one side of the thank-you card.

"Okay, now your turn. You try." I pointed him to write on the side of the card that I hadn't written on. I was pretty impressed he was still interested and not off playing with his toys!

And the rest was history. TJ really got into "writing", and we had the assembly thank-you card line goin'! I would write the English version on one side, while TJ would write the Toddler version on the other side. I put the finishing touch on the card, by noting in parenthesis, "(translation) --->", bridging our two versions.

It definitely took longer, but I just thought it was neat. Other than playing cars and trucks, it was our first team effort at doing something. And it was "grown-up" stuff!

It was also one step towards training him, while he was still too young to object. I want TJ view writing thank-you cards as common place as having a snack, taking a bath, or playing with his toys.

Scribbling thank-you cards might seem trivial to some. To me, it was a hopeful sign of things to come. I hope my son grows up to be one of the guys I had always enjoyed dating, well mannered and appreciative of the littlest things. That would be just peachy!