Starting the Perfect Graduation Gift At Age 3

I read once in an online article for Time Magazine about a dad who asked every teacher and coach his child had to write a message to his daughter inside a copy of Dr. Suess’ Oh The Places You’ll Go!

We decided that we would do something similar with our daughter. We chose to have her teachers write letters to her to have when she graduates high school. We started early, she was enrolled in Early Head Start and we asked her teacher to write a letter to her when she aged out of the program at 3. She thought that was a wonderful idea and she wrote her a letter and sealed it up.

The next teacher we asked was her music teacher, Miss Anna, who did not end up writing it, and although I emailed her twice after our daughter stopped doing lessons, she never came through.

I also asked her tap and ballet instructors to do so, but they did not either, so I didn’t ask again. We did skip a few along the way though. She was enrolled in a gymnastics class where the entire University gymnastics team coached the girls and we thought there were too many coaches to pick one to ask. She was in a cheerleading camp for 3 days and it was coached by the Varsity squad at the local high school and we felt that not only was it too hard to pick one, but they didn’t have enough time with her and they were just kids themselves. She also participated in what our area calls “Smart Start” athletics, and there were several coaches there as well, so they were also left out when she played t-ball and golf.

When my daughter was 4, she enrolled in a daycare with a preschool room where there was 2 main teachers and at least 1 assistant. When the main assistant graduated college and was moving, I asked her to do so, she lovingly agreed as well. When my daughter “graduated” preschool, both of her teachers thought it was a great idea and also participated.

I assume that her kindergarten teacher will participate too as she sent all of the kids postcards in the mail shortly after school started and sent them Christmas cards as well at Christmas.

As the years go on, I hope that most all of her teachers will participate in our asking them to write her a letter. It is a small task that takes very little time and you don’t even have to like my child to do so, tell them they were a bit “spirited” or a tad “overwhelming,” give them some advice for moving on in life, something.

I only hope that when my daughter graduates high school and I give her the bundle of letters from her teachers that she reads them and knows how amazing she is. Some of the letters written to her were not sealed or in an envelope so I did read those before putting them in an envelope and I know that her teachers see the amazing kid she is and know she will be an even more amazing young adult.