The Sticker Club
Back when I was crazed with three little kids in four years, I vaguely remember getting a piece of mail addressed to my oldest child, who must have been four at the time. I opened it, saw something about a Sticker Club that looked like a dreaded chain letter. You were supposed to mail a bunch of letters, make copies, send stickers......my eyes glazed over. I couldn't make that kind of commitment and into the trash it went. Well here I am, four years later, all the kids are in school - I am way past diapers (ok, one nighttime pull-up, but that doesn't count in my book) and bottles. Again the Sticker Club mailing comes in the mail - this time to my youngest - and I was able to handle the project this time around. Funny what a difference a few years make!
If you haven't seen this before (and I'm sure many of you moms have) you get a letter in the mail addressed to your child, along with a blank version of the letter. On the addressed letter, there are two names on the bottom: name #1 and name #2 (which is the buddy who sent you the letter). So, you do two things: First, you mail one sheet of stickers to name #1. Second, you fill out the blank letter by moving name #2 buddy to #1 spot and put your child's name in #2 spot. Then you send the letter to six friends. Eventually your child should get 36 packs of stickers (in an ideal world). We have gotten three so far, but my son was beyond thrilled to get some mail.
So, crazed moms, if this letter comes to your child, don't throw it out like I did but take 15 minutes to do it - your child will love it. You could even start one yourself - here is a link to a Sticker Club letter (you have to copy and paste the link in your browser because it's a PDF - https://rachaelray.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/The20Sticker20Club.pdf). I thought my son, who is five, wouldn't be interested but was I ever wrong. He loved picking out the friends to send the letter to, and he even filled out the envelopes (challenging to get him to write small enough to fit on the envelope, but a good activity in itself). And who doesn't love stickers :-)?