Handwritten inspirational lunch notes for kids

I love inspirational quotes. I always save them on my computer or my phone thinking that I’d share them with my kids. I’ve even thought about putting up a chalkboard where I would write daily inspirational quotes or affirmations. Unfortunately, we don’t have too much empty wall space left in our main living area. Eventually, I decided to give a try to including encouraging quotes or affirmations in their lunch boxes this year. Some of you might know my obsession with stationary. I have lots of gel pens, chalk markers, and paint markers that I could use to write them, but when I saw these Melissa & Doug Rainbow Mini Scratch Art Notes I knew they were the perfect note papers to use for lunch notes.

I started with appreciation messages. These are our personal messages about things that they’ve recently done or something that had recently happened. It tells about our feelings for them. They are personal and individual for each of them.

• Our life is full of love and joy thanks to you.
• You are very creative, keep on creating.
• Ideas for problem solving come easily and quickly to you.
• Thank you for being caring and thoughtful.

Then I moved on to inspirational quotes. These are quotes I love about personal power, positivity, being kind. Both kids get the same quote unless I feel there is a specific subject we should focus on with each of them. Resources I use in addition to the quotes I save on my computer are: Inspiring back to school quotes by Imagination Soup, Quotes about life from children’s books, Inspirational quotes from children’s books, Wayne Dyer quotes, Inspiring quotes for kids board on Pinterest.

• Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. (we’ve seen this quote in a store in Chinatown during our San Francisco trip)
• When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.
• Do the right thing, even when no one is looking.
• You were born an original, don’t die a copy.
• Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.
• Your can’t control what other people fo. You can control the way you react.

I sometimes write affirmations. These are affirmations for kids about personal power, growth mindset, self-esteem, problem solving etc. These are mostly individualized but general enough that it doesn’t make them feel they are deficient in a specific area. Resources I use are Positive affirmation notes by Teach Mama, Daily affirmations for kids, 101 affirmations for kids, Kids affirmations board on Pinterest. Some of the affirmation notes I’ve written:

• You work hard for the things that you want.
• You always remember the things that you need to do. ( a post is coming up about this)
• You are whole and complete.

I try to come up with messages or find quotes or affirmations the night before, in order avoid scrambling during our hectic morning routine. I try to include drawings, shapes in the text. Writing on scratch note in decent handwriting is not possible for me. So I try to embellish it with small illustrations.

3 weeks into the routine, I surveyed them to see how they liked the lunch notes, to gauge whether I should continue putting in the time and the effort. I didn’t want to waste my time, if they didn’t care about it. Their response was very positive. They keep all their messages in their lunch box, which is rare because they used to throw away any message that I’ve previously written for them. They go over the notes again and again, every once in a while. Even better, when I quietly slip the notes into their lunch boxes in the morning, they open them up to see what it says on the way to school.

Melissa & Doug Rainbow Mini Scratch Art Notes come with its own wooden stylus. If you lose it, you can use skewers and/or toothpick instead. It’s visually very appealing and simpler instead of using multiple pens or markers to give a similar colorful effect. It lasts longer, doesn’t break, fold or tear. But, you have to make sure that nothing sharp scratches against it in a bag.

These scratch art notes work perfect also as arts stationery. They make great mandala paper. For intricate designs, I recommend using toothpick instead of its own stylus. Kids love to draw on them as well.

Do you share inspirational quotes and encouraging messages with your kids? Please share when and how do you do it with me in the comments.