Instagram Message: I'm a happy camper! This guy can read!! Check out thoughtfulpinch.com.
I signed up my son for a reading course this summer but called it "reading camp" so he would actually let me take him. I thought I would be sneaky because apparently attaching the word "camp" to anything makes it fun. Well the joke was on me because the parents were asked to stay for the first hour of EVERY two-hour session. What? I thought I would be able to drop him off and have two hours to run errands. This requirement is to help parents help their kids. Well geez, make me feel like a jerk please! But as a result, I have seen some major progress and the growth of my son's confidence. This camp turned out to be fun after all.
This past Saturday was week four out of the five week "reading camp" and it hit me that I am able to write my son simple notes because now he can read them. I had a smile ear to ear. What a happy camper I am! Now I can say horrible things to my son and then write him sorry notes. I AM TOTALLY JOKING!!! Please let me back up so you don't go calling child protection services on me.
My daughter, who is 2 years older than my son, has been able to read since she was four and I have been leaving her thoughtful notes ever since. I didn't think much about these little pinches until I was cleaning out her room this Spring and found all my notes in a pile on a shelf. I was so touched. She kept every one of them! For anyone who has ever been tired at the end of a long day and said some things to your kids that probably should have stayed in your head, you can relate. The guilt would pile up so high that at the end of the night I felt like (and still feel like) I should wake up my kids to say, "I said some really shitty things and I suck." I opted to write my daughter notes instead of waking her up, depriving her of sleep and oh yeah, skipped the foul language. I wrote a lot of "I'm sorry" notes which I left for her to find the next morning and hoped for the best.
For my daughter, I have this vision to leave sweet notes in a little bird cage like this - she can find the notes in the morning or before bed and it would be our special "pen-pal" relationship. But these days she wants to change her room from pink and white to all BLACK. Somehow I will have to find a way to leave these thoughtful notes. Pretty soon we will set up her email account and I will send her notes so she can check her emails. I think she would love it. And these days, it seems like every other hour we have been butting heads so I will be writing a novel by the end of the year if I continue at my pace.
It's fun to think that my youngest and littlest recipient in our family can now enjoy these thoughtful pinches. Even my hub gets them. When he travels, which is often, I pack him a little note that he finds when he unpacks. A tiny way to let the hub know I will miss him and we are home waiting for his return.
Looking forward to sharing these 150 Love Notes by Sugarboo Designs purchased at Papersource with my son who can read!!! I need to find some fun way to leave him my notes so he can find in the mornings or before bedtime.
Some are fun and some are deep but these notes from the 150 Love Notes pad are great to share.
My "Happy Camper" Card purchased from Brown Ink and two more notes that come in that 150 Love Notes pad.
A great way to make sure your camper is happy is to slip a little note in their lunchbox, back pack, locker, by their toothbrush, in their driver seat etc. - let them know you are thinking of them (especially if you said some things you may regret the night before!)
Pinches,
Barb