Contain Yourself: Show You Care
Everyone loves to know that they are appreciated and loved no matter what age; but with our busy schedules today we often forget to stop for a moment to make sure everyone truly knows how important they are in our lives.
According to the Raising Children Network, any kind of acknowledgement will help to build confidence, develop a relationship and encourage good behavior. Emotional literacy is also an essential skill to develop within children starting at a young age and by allowing them to express themselves through these notes you greatly enhancing their literacy by allowing them to be emotional in an non verbal way.
The container for this week will help ensure that these special thoughts and acknowledgements are not forgotten by making cute ‘mailboxes’ for everyone in the family.
Once the mailboxes are complete and placed somewhere central in the house with paper and pens, everyone will be able to capture their thoughts of appreciation by simply slipping a note into a family member’s mailbox. You can also make it a family event to read everyone’s notes out loud, allowing the family to gather together once again.
What you need:
• Coffee or Oatmeal cylinder container
• Tape
• Scissors
• Magazines, paper, paint or anything you want to stick on your container
• Scratch paper for your notes to each other
• Pens for writing notes
• Creativity and Imagination!
Making your container:
• Find a time your family is all free and begin to collect materials to decorate your container.
• Cut a slit in the top of the container making a place your special notes can be placed.
• Let your minds go wild and make a container that represents you and you want to have on show in the house.
Chipper made this cute “Piggy Bank” container with pink construction paper. Make your own animal (cow, horse, squirrel, etc.) or just decorate it with markers/crayons, nature materials, glitter … sky’s the limit! Add a “tail” to your mailbox by folding a strip of paper back and forth until you’ve reached the end then tape it to your container.
What kind of notes will you deliver to your family? It can be as simple as, “Thank you for doing the dishes!” to a more elaborate message of appreciation for behavior, actions, or even a hug! There’s nothing like getting some appreciation after a long day of work or school so consider making it a weekly family action.
Share your family mail boxes with Chipper and the gang in the comments below or on Facebook! We’d love to see what you come up with 🙂
