A great way to spend time with your kids is to build a mailbox outside their room
Build A Mailbox Outside Their Room:
This unique date idea will provide for a collection of lifetime memories for your child. This date idea came from remembering how much I loved getting the mail each day as a child, combined with my desire to leave my children notes of love and encouragement. Everyone loves to receive words of affirmation, especially children. This date gives you a long-standing place to provide those notes. The mailbox itself can be as simple or elaborate as you wish.
The idea is simply to spend the evening creating this mailbox together. Your child will feel extra special that you thought to do something like this and want to create the box with him or her. What the final product looks like will depend on how creative the two of you are in making it. The date allows for much creativity and sentimental value.
WMTDS (What Makes This Date Special):
How many people do you think have done this? Probably a tiny percentage of the population. Imagine how special it will make children of any age feel to know that their mom or dad has created such a unique way to express love. Something else that makes this special is that you or your child may share the idea with others, who then may decide to do the same thing at their house. Now such a unique way to create memories and send love is spread to other homes – you will have given that gift to other children and families.
Teachable Moments:
Your child’s value to you and the family.
Various home improvement and craft skills.
Budgeting.
You are, of course, teaching your children how special they are to you. There is also a lot of room here for teaching them various craft skills that go along with building a mailbox outside their room. You can create a budget for your project and teach them how to use it to buy the materials needed. It doesn’t need to be elaborate; for example, tell them you have $20 to spend, and they have to stay under that limit.
Variations:
The main difference is that you could expand this to everyone in your house. If you are married, you could create a unique and meaningful place for you and your spouse to leave each other notes. If you have other children, you could create one for each of them. The notes can serve to encourage them when they have tests, to celebrate holidays like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, or even – or perhaps most meaningfully – for no occasion whatsoever.
Expense:
There is a small to moderate cost associated with building a mailbox for their room. It will depend on how creative you want to be. You could do a nice mailbox outside their room for little expense.
A great way to spend time with your kids is to build a mailbox outside their room
Planning:
The only advanced plan needed is if you want to decide before your date what the design for the mailbox will be. You could, however, make that a part of your date and skip the advanced planning. This would be a great date to do on a Saturday morning as you could go to the hardware store, build, and hang it all on one date.
Reference Websites:
Give kids their very own mailbox
Amazon Resources:
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Alternatives:
For a list of other ideas on how to spend one-on-one time with your child, see the full list here.
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