When I took Chris to register for Kinder, he was terrified. He looked right at the Vice Principal and told her he would NEVER come to this school. I was mortified and heart broken. How could my child (coming from MEEEEEEE!!!!) be so fearful of school??? Was I in for days of tears and refusals to get up to go?

Fortunately, we were blessed with the most AMAZING Kindergarten teacher.  The first week of school she sent home a note to Chris.  It was the first thing he handed me (all crumpled and loved on) that afternoon. He was so proud that his teacher wrote HIM a note. He asked me to read it again and again, and taped it to his wall near his bed.  This note takes him through the good and the bad; the ‘easy’ and the challenging. I have heard him read this note over and over (when he was busted and in time-out!). This note has carried him through the year.

We have since received numerous notes from his teacher, all as important to him as the first. This one hangs on our fridge as a celebration for his daily counting to learn up to 100! When he struggles with sight words, counting by 5’s, or any rote memorization, we look at that note as a reminder that all things take time to learn.

Is it just Chris that loves a little note? Nope. Fast forward to his recent eval for speech. I will be honest. It was a lot of pages expressing a lot of jargon that I forgot the minute I was done reading, except for the part on the back of the eval… I am still teary-eyed when I reread it.  At the end of the day, at the end of the struggles he has, my boy is a good person, and someone noticed.

In this electronic age, let us not forget the little things, like hand-written notes. Why are notes so important? It is unique; someone took time out of their day to physically express something to another person. It expresses that you matter so much that, instead of texting or emailing (which could be a cut/paste), someone took the time to individualize and express thoughts just for you. Wow.

So let’s each commit to writing one note this week:

• Put a post-it note in your child’s (or students’) lunch or binder letting him/her know how much you care for them
• Put a note in your significant other’s car specifically telling him/her one kind thought
• With this being Teacher Appreciation Week for so many districts, send a note letting your child’s teacher know how much they mean to you and your child
• Mother’s Day (wink…wink…nudge…nudge…) doesn’t have to be just the kids making handmade cards. Let a mama know how much they mean to YOU
• Put a kind thought on a random door, car, locker, etc.