Friendship messages help kids practice giving and receiving compliments



Lift off, Jeanie Tomanek, painter. 
This is her website and Etsy storeI think receiving a friendship message 
makes a person feel uplifted like the girl in this picture. 

We have an encouragement feast today, a practice of giving and receiving compliments. It is a marvelous activity for families and classrooms. 

After the feast, we write friendship messages. The only rule is that you sign your name. The children write messages to each other or a parent. This message is for Brennyn. Ansel writes, "I like when you play with me a lot."


Ansel writes a friendship message.

Here is a message a child wrote to me. I pasted it in my journal.



It is interesting to me that over the years some children spontaneously call me "Aunt Susan." Brenna, the writer of the message on green paper, addresses me that way. Kate, a former student and now a Montessori teacher and mom to her son Charlie, still refers to me as aunt.