Letters make us happy, too!

THE OTHER DAY, my daughter Lilia got a letter from her sponsored child, and it included the greatest thing: a picture of Gloria, holding the letter she had just gotten from Lilia.

Which got me thinking...

We read a lot about how much our letters mean to sponsored children, but do they know how much their letters mean to us? Do you ever have those nagging doubts that maybe your sponsored child didn't even get the last letter you wrote? They must have those feelings too!

So... my gift to you: an idea, and a way to implement it. Have someone take a picture of you holding your sponsored child's latest letter. Print it out, print out one of these "frames" and paste your photo onto it, and send it with your next letter! Hope you like them!

Here are two "frames" showing how they'd look after you paste your (much more attractive) picture of yourself in...

The mouse version (without my picture in it!) can be downloaded here.

And the floral version can be found here.

(Or just click on the images below!)

Enjoy!

Things to Send Sponsored Children: A Bible Verse "Cootie Catcher"

RAISE YOUR HAND if you remember "cootie catchers!  

HERE IS ONE you can print out, fold, and send to your sponsored kids-- a cootie catcher with Bible verses! I remember making these and playing with them for hours in elementary school (We would rig them with names of boys in our school that we'd marry, numbers of kids we'd have, all kinds of fortune-telling narratives!), and I thought it might be neat to have them with Bible verses rather than fortunes as the final step. Plus, for the little ones, they provide a teeny bit of practice with numbers and letters (of the English alphabet).

To make it easier, here is a PDF so you can print the sheet on regular paper, with an instruction sheet showing you how to fold it (in case you don't remember, if you were not as obsessed with these things as I was as a kid!) and the third page is an instruction sheet to include for your sponsored child on how to play the game. I've included lots of photos (featuring my lovely daughter) to make it easier.... Don't forget to write your child's name/number on each piece to make sure it gets to them! Enjoy!

Things to make for sponsored kids!

IT WAS TIME to write to my sponsored kids again (with 10 sponsored and one correspondent child, I've decided I need to take two weekends for letter-writing!).

With Agartha and Maria, I have little girls to write to for the first time in a while. It is always frustrating looking at the lists of things we can't send--when I really want to send dresses, and dolls, and art supplies, and books, and hair bows, and...

So, anyway, I found this GREAT site, where you can print out toys that you make out of paper! They are so cute! This weekend I went with ... finger puppets (As anyone who knows me will attest to, I am a sucker for puppets.).

Lilia helped, of course. Here's what we did:

The finger puppets are printed out on a sheet with instructions. Since I didn't know whether Agartha or Maria would have access to scissors and glue (and Agartha is only in Kindergarten and probably not all that skilled with scissors yet!), I decided to do most of the "assembly" for them.

These scrapbooking glue thingies were perfect, since I could leave the little non-sticky paper on them, and it even has a little tab the girls can peel off.

 

 

I decided to package the finger puppets in the plastic envelope that a set of notecards came in; that way, the girls had something to keep them in, and I included simple instructions (with pictures of Lilia) in the plastic pouch. It even has a little sticky seal to keep it closed!

I added a card with a handwritten note, and -- voila!

So... if you want to check out some really really neat printable toys for your sponsored children (or your own children), check out The Toymaker site! I'm thinking paper dolls next...

The Sponsored Child Writing Group

Here is the cover of the book I made for Agartha.

We had our first get-together today, and although only one family came, we did make really COOL books for our sponsored children. Rosie, an avid crafter, came and taught us how to make them. She promises more cool crafts for future months!

I made a book for Agartha in Ghana. And the timing was perfect, as I got her info packet in the mail today!

Drew shows the book he is making

Rosie with her cool dye-cutting machine

The books are made from small paper lunch bags. That means each page is a pocket that can hold a tabbed card with a secret message!

And the secret message...

From here on, I'll show the pages with the secret message pulled out. This was SO fun!

Bob accuses me of being a tree-hugger. Guess I proved it here.

Sticker daffodils plus photo of my real daffodils...

Love the "bubble" stickers!

I was glad I got Agartha's packet today, so I could scan her photo and add it to this page!

The end!

So... I'll pack this with a letter to Agartha, and hope she gets it! The FAQ page at Compassion says you can no longer send books or booklets, but right under that it gives instructions for making a small photo album to send, so maybe this is still OK...

Second Friday Letter-Writing

Compassion sponsors have started a second Friday letter-writing campaign. Fridays are tough for me, so I've elected to do second Saturdays. I wrote to Ritu and Estefani today--they will be shocked to get so many letters all of a sudden (I have NOT been the greatest letter-writer--until lately).

I went to Michael's and found wonderful stickers to add to the letters, and small calendars that I sent to each girl. I marked their birthdays in the calendars with stars and hearts and flowers and exclamation points... Maybe they won't even see that until their birth month arrives--fun!

Michael's also had, in the dollar section, little packs of "positive notes" designed to be put in your child's lunchbox. My youngest is now 13 and prefers buying her lunch, but these would make good gifts for sponsored kids--things they could give to their friends! (Since they say things like, "I enjoy spending time with you," they wouldn't really work as notes from sponsor to sponsored child). If you want more than the little sample packs available at Michael's, they can be found here. Each one has a nice little note on one side and a "fun fact" on the other. Cute!