Day 4 of the January Photo a Day Challenge: Letterbox
A different kind of letterbox, maybe. This one was handmade by my 5-year old one day during school. We are in the middle of our first year of homeschooling here at Smarty Pants Academy, which means we’re all learning as we go. I think I’m learning the most, to be honest.
Throughout the school day we take “Brain Breaks”, which is when the kids can choose a fun activity from a list. Each activity is 5 minutes long. One day Ella decided to make something, so she spent her Brain Break creating a letterbox for our school. Each day we write secret notes to each other—either a note of encouragement or praise, or just a fun picture we’ve drawn—and then we tuck it into the Secret Smarty Pants letterbox to be read aloud on Friday. This was all Ella’s idea. She is the sweet-spirited encourager of the family.
I love this little letterbox. It’s a wonderful vehicle for telling my kids that I notice their hard work. Even if we’ve had a long day of butting heads and battling strong wills, this forces me to take a moment and find at least one thing to praise them for. And usually once I’ve recognized one thing, I start to see many things. Funny how praise begets praise, which births thankfulness. Snow ball effect.
Join us and be a Secret Smarty Pants encourager to someone today.
And PS: Anonymous handwritten notes are the best!
I love the encouragement to do this! I’m going to do it for me and Mike! Hope He’ll participate! Making a box now…
This is so fun!