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Filed Under Stuff | September 10, 2010
Did you ever get lunchbox notes when you were at school? Little missives from your mother reminding you she was thinking of you? Ours were always written on our bananas, a tradition we continue to this day with our own tots. Well Vancouver mama Maria Freeman has taken things a few steps farther and created Little Jots.
Little Jots is a little system including a handy, refillable, purse-sized notebook full of pre-written notes, sheets for you to jot your own little missives and hug and kiss stickers to seal them with. Freeman consulted with child development specialists to carefully craft messages that are all about boosting the parent-child connection through love, inspiration and encouragement. Each note is designed to be folded and sealed with the accompanying stickers, so you feel like you’re opening a tiny gift. A proponent of Gordon Neufeld, author of Hold Onto Your Kids: why parents need to matter more than peers, Freeman is all about making kids feel connected, valued, special and loved.
We started using Little Jots when we were out of town sans enfants for almost a week. Beforehand we left a collection of jots for each of our tots. And we really appreciated the pre-written notes as we were madly scribbling our jots the night before we left and didn’t feeling particularly inspired and somehow “we miss you” on each note just didn’t cut it. We mixed and matched pre-written jots with our own messages and our kids eagerly anticipated their dad doling out jots each morning. We even included a surprise one for him in the pile because feeling valued, special, connected and loved shouldn’t be limited to the under five set.
Jots can be left in lunch bags, under pillows, inside a book or slipped into backpacks and are a lovely way to help ease the separation as kids go back to school. And even pre-readers will appreciate notes if you teach them what “I heart (insert heart drawing here) u” or “xoxox” means. You could even tape a photo of your family inside a little jot, which you definitely can’t do with a banana.
Little Jots: littlejots.com
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