Thank You Letters

Perhaps we're old-fashioned, but over the years we must have sent hundreds of Thank You Letters. These began as large splodge paintings, cut up and stuck onto cards. Next was the computer phase - photographs of the children or clip art ballet dancers and the like. Now we're moving on to the real challenge. So we decided on a recipe and a technique which is as follows:

After writing your address and the date at the top, the letter itself has a pattern of just four sentences.

1. Write Thank you for.......
2. Write something that you like about the gift (or if you don't like it write something positive about it).
3. Explain how you have used the gift, or how you hope to use it.
4. Write something that shows you care about the person who sent you the gift.

To begin with we composed examples of letters out loud taking turns to think of a sentence. This turned out to be thought-provoking and fun. Even after a couple of attempts I've noticed a real improvement in using this technique to think of more interesting sentences than the usual 'Hope you are well'.

To carry out the task we bought some small notebooks and notelets. Each letter is drafted on just one side of A6 in the notebook. It is then checked for accuracy, spelling, punctuation and word flow and copied carefully into a notecard. We can then look back over the draft letters for ideas if we get stuck. The girls seem to like: the 'small' page per letter; the choice of notelets (kittens and puppies seem popular); and the envelope, stamp and posting part of the process. We've had some really good conversations about why handwritten letters, particularly Thank You Letters, might make a difference to the recipient's day and to the sender's future.