Check multiple learning items off your home learning list with these educational reasons young kids should write thank you cards.

*This post is sponsored by Basic Invite. All opinions are my own.

I have distinct memories of my mom handing me a pile of thank you notes and telling me to get them written. Whether it was for Christmas or birthday presents, I would sit down at the desk in my room to a list of gifts and start cranking out paragraphs to the senders.

Now, with three little kids, and a wonderful family and group of friends who love to spoil them (even if it is not a holiday), I make my own kids write thank you cards for their gifts. 

Sure, it may take us longer than is appropriate to get them done, but the expectation is there.

8 Educational Reasons Young Kids Should Write Thank You Cards 

While it might seem a bit old school to get a hand-written thank you note, it is an ingrained habit for me that comes with multiple educational purposes for young kids. 

Art Time With A Purpose

Zoey especially just loves to craft. She is regularly asking me to give her a specific project to make and would happily sit for an hour or more working on one. 

With thank you cards, the kids are given art time with a purpose. I encourage the kids to think about what colors the gift giver likes, what drawings they might enjoy, and what fun activities they have done together. 

This puts some real meaning and purpose to the kids’ creativity and they tend to take a little longer, and are a little more careful, with their work. 

Thankfully, all of Basic Invite’s cards come with a blank inside so you have plenty of room to write or draw whatever you please. 

Practice Writing Skills

After the art is complete, the kids get to practice their writing. 

For William, this looks like him pretending to make letters and working on his pencil grip. 

For Zoey, she is forming letters, using the sounds I give her to determine the letters, and signing her name. Zoey does not write the entire card herself, as she loses stamina after 3-4 words at once, but she is still developing her writing skills. 

Practice Speech

When Zoey has exhausted her writing concentration and William is done “writing”, I have each child tell me what to write. This allows them to practice forming full sentences with their speech, articulating their thoughts, and specifying why they enjoy their present. 

I help them along in their sentences by giving them a few verbal sentence starters (hello ESL teacher), and asking them questions like, “What do you like about your gift,” and “What does your gift do?”

Develop Cognitive Skills 

One of the best parts of writing thank you cards is letting the kids choose the cards they want to write their cards on. I encourage the kids to pick cards they think the receiving person would like. This requires the kids to take into consideration what someone else would enjoy rather than what they personally like. 

Basic Invite has a cache of perfect designs to choose from. If you do not find something within the premade cards you like, you can easily and quickly upload your own image. 

Then use Basic Invite’s custom card builder to choose from over 180 colors, different fonts, and 40 peel and seal envelope colors so you can have the exact design you prefer. 

For instance, I know the grandparents adore pictures of the kids, so creating a card with their faces on it that is special for the grandparents only is ideal. 

The kids each have a stack of their own cards as well that they adore. I find it helps motivate them to write their thank you cards because they are just so happy to have a dump truck or unicorn on their cards. 

Learn About The Mail System

Our kids are obsessed with mail. 

They want to go to the mailbox every day to check it, are giddy when letters or packages are for them, and always point out every mail truck we see when we are driving around. 

Learning how letters work with envelopes, stamps, and return addresses makes them so happy. When we are done putting our thank you letters together, we take a group trip to the mailbox (which is a short way up our street) to drop in their letters. 

Thank you cards are a perfect way to teach them all about how the mail system works. 

Basic Invite even offers an Address Capturing Service so you can simply share a link on your social media to request addresses from family and friends. From there, the addresses are stored in your Basic Invite account and you can just order recipient address printing at no cost. 

For the Christmas and birthday pile of thank you cards, this is a life saver from having to do it all myself. 

Teaches Cause and Effect 

It seems like I spend the majority of my day teaching the kids about cause and effect, whether directly or indirectly. 

If they want to go play outside in the rain, they are going to be soaking wet when they come in. 

If they clean their rooms, they can have an extra book for bedtime. 

If they go in the potty, their Nonna sends them a crane. Got to love that grandparent spoiling and potty training bribery.

Thank you cards gives me opportunity to teach them about cause and effect in a way that does not just affect them, but others as well. We talk a good deal about how happy the person receiving their card will feel when they open the note. 

Trains Them To Complete A Task

Part of the chaos of having three very young children, is it is hard to finish out one task. This is true for the kids and for myself. 

Zoey often gets interrupted during her crafting time by Hazel coming over to take all of the markers out of the bin. 

William often cannot decide between sitting to draw or playing with trucks (he is getting way better though). 

Encouraging the kids to write thank you cards gives them a clear process and final end task to aim for. From writing the actual card to envelope, stamp, return address, and all the way to the mailbox, they can see the full task in through. 

Develops Thoughtfulness 

One of my hard parenting drives is to teach my children to be thoughtful of the people around them.

This might mean I ask Hazel to help make William feel better when he is having a tantrum. It means I ask Zoey to read an extra book to William while I finish dishes. It means I have William ask if someone is okay when they are hurt. 

I want all three of the kids to be kind, caring, and thoughtful to others and writing thank you cards is another step in that learning direction. We also regularly write birthday cards for cousins and friends, assemble graduation notes, and mail out Christmas cards. 

For any of the cards you want to order, whether they be senior announcements, open house invitations templates, or a custom graduation announcement, Basic Invite offers custom samples. You can design your card and have a few shipped to you to proof your work, feel the quality of the card, and make sure your design is just perfect before you mass order. 

Use code 15FF51 to save 15% on your Basic Invite order. 

If you opt to begin writing thank you cards with your children, make sure you take your time. Start with small chunks to complete your cards and chip away at them over a few days rather than sitting down to do them all at once.

Remember, there are 8 educational reasons why your young kids should write thank you cards, including stamina, so it makes perfect sense if your child starts to lose interest as their brains, hands, and concentration tires. 

Keep it fun, let your child pick out the cards they want to use, and start chatting about how much people adore getting cards – thank you cards or otherwise.