Did you know that today is National Love Note Day? To celebrate, we have a great guest post from Maggie McGuire at the Scholastic Parents Raise a Reader blog with some fun notes you can drop in your child's lunchbox that will make them smile AND exercise their reading skills!
I’m always looking for new ways to put a little fun and learning into everyday moments – and I love putting small surprises in my kids’ lunch boxes. It’s my little way of connecting with them during the day. So recently, I decided to marry these two desires and came up with a few ideas for making lunch time – well, literary too! Try out these ideas – and explore your own and see what your kids say. My kids were surprised and had a good time sharing them with their friends at the lunch table.
Pack a Few Jokes: Grab a few joke books and write down individual jokes on post-its, construction paper, or whatever you have around the house. I write the first part of the joke on the front of a small piece of paper and put the “big finish” on the back.
Riddles: My boys love riddles. There are all kinds – so experiment. I found a few cool “visual” riddles and drew the visual image out on paper and asked: What is this? On the back, I revealed the answers. My kids and their friends loved these. I’ve also thrown in word and math riddles to keep it interesting.
Personal Note: Personal notes are a reminder to my kids that I’m thinking of them. Sometimes it’s as simple as, “Have a GREAT day! Love, Mom” or “Hope your publishing party is really fun today. Can’t wait to hear how it goes!” Or “Happy Friday! See you tonight for family movie night!” Try making your note specific to the day or an event that’s happening so they connect that you’re aware of it and know it’s important to them.
For the rest of the tips, head over to Raise a Reader!
