Don't forget thank you notes!!

My toddler had a bountiful Christmas and was blessed by family and friends with an enormous pile of presents. I'm working hard to make him understand that each gift requires a thank you. He did a pretty good job of thanking people in person (and he told us how much he liked that Santa guy). But today we start our thank you notes. Since he can't really write yet, I came up with a pretty simple idea for a thank you he could participate in last Christmas. His great grandma loved it so we will repeat it this year.

All you need is:

A camera - ideally a phone or tablet for easy printing

A white board or chalk board - this would be so cute with chalk but chalk makes my skin crawl. 

Whiteboard markers or chalk

The gifts

A list of gifts and gifters to be sure you include everyone 

Ideally two adults

A bag of m&ms is optional but an effective bribe to get the photos done in one session 

Blurry example photo of toddler holding gift in front of tree with whiteboard sign.

We set the camera up in front of the tree and moved the camera around to find the best possible angle. We also turn on all the lights in the room and the lamps. Then we simply handed him each gift and adjusted the thank you on the white board as needed. We tried to add special notes where possible too. Be sure to snap a few photos of each to give you the most possible options to select from - we had more than a few bad ones.Then upload the pictures to your favorite photo processor and have them printed. On the back of the photos you can even add a hand print and the year for an extra special touch. 

What do you think? What have you found to be good thank you notes from toddlers? 

Scholarship help for high schoolers!

I'm really excited to share with you a new tool I have created to help students prepare for the scholarship application process. I've been doing workshops about it for a few years and discovered an opportunity recently to turn it into an online lecture.

Have you ever used Udemy? Udemy is an online educational platform that allows anyone to learn practically anything. It has many free courses as well as paid courses on a wide variety of subjects. The courses are divided into small lectures of no more than 20 minutes and you go at your own pace and can review them as you like. I've been really pleased with their offerings.

So, I created a course on applying for scholarships! I was so blessed to have great people help me in my scholarship application process and I want to pass that information on! The course includes tips on getting organized, collecting and creating the materials you will need, a section on what to wear do and say in an interview and the follow up steps to get paid for scholarships you win. The whole course is just over an hour.

https://www.udemy.com/25k-for-college-get-organized-and-win-scholarships/?couponCode=AGBUILT

I'd love for you to check it out so I have created a coupon code to give you all early access for FREE. Just click on the course image above or copy and paste the above link. I'd love you to try it out and give me your feedback. This is my first try at this and there is plenty of room for improvement! You are also able to ask questions and start discussions in the course.

I've got 100 free coupons to share so please pass this along to someone you know who could use a quick training on better preparing for the scholarship application process!