Future Letters

For those of you who don't me well...which I suppose is everyone who reads this blog, I am an avid lis maker. I love to plan ahead and to make large lists while doing so. Tonight, while sitting on my couch trying to find something to do, I came up with a bunch of ideas of letters to write to my sponsored children. I took into account leaving enough time for holidays and other celebrations. I took all of these ideas and put them in a list. I decided to post this list on my blog for two reasons. 1. To help me remember these ideas and 2. To give others out there in the child sponsorship blogosphere ideas of things to write to their sponsored children.

Ready for this?! (I also included dates for myself so I know when to have them sent by)

January 13th: I took some fun pictures of the first snow we got here in Illinois. I printed out multiple copies of them. I'm going to send these pictures, some snowflake stickers, a message about how each snowflake it differnet and unique just like my them.

February 3rd: Easter letters. This year, Easter is on April 8th. I like to send big letters like this three months in advance. I'd rather the kids get them early then late. I'm planning to send stickers that have both the religious meaning and the easter bunny/candy meaning to them. I think every kid deserves to know both of the fun celebrations. I'll write a letter explaining these.

February 17th: I recently went on a trip to Chicago. I took many fun pictures of the skyline, the bean, and pictures of Lego Land, Abu loves legos and I think showing him pictures a giant sculptures made out of legos will make his day.

Also on this day, I will send out a special letter and activities for Kalpesh's 10th birthday.

February 24th: Mother's Day letters. I will explain to my kiddos about what Mother's Day is and what we do to celebrate it. I will include a card for each of them to write their own mothers a special message. I will also include stickers of flowers to decorate the cards with.

Also on this day, I will send out a birthday package for Abu's 10th birthday. I don't know what I'm going to send him for sure yet, but I'm thinking about a backpack full of school/art supplies. I love sponsoring a country with no package size limits. I can't send him big things that often, but I love it when I can.

March 2nd: I'm going to tell my kiddos about my family's tradition of making sugar cookies. I took pictures of each step of the process including rolling out the dough, using cookie cutters, baking them, and decorating them with colored frosting and sprinkles. I'm excited to share this part of my family with my sponsored children.

March 16th:  Name Meanings/Birth Verses. Using google I looked up what each of my sponsored children's names mean. I also looked up their birth bible verse (there are several websites that do this) based on their birth dates. I want to make each of my sponsored children a little "plaque" with their name, their name meaning, and their birth verse on it. I think this will make them feel really special.

March 23rd: Father's Day letters. Same as the mother's day cards, but with something besides flower stickers.

So there you have it. My next threee months planned out, when it comes to letters at least.

Feel free to use any of these ideas for your own sponsored children. Adapt them to your needs/family traditions/recent trips. Writing letters to your sponsored children should be fun for you and fun for them to read. You don't have to write the same things over and over again!