I love receiving letters from the children I sponsor. I sponsor a girl in the Dominican Republic who colors some precious pictures in each letter she sends us.
Doesn’t it just make your day when you get artwork from the child you sponsor?
Have you ever considered that your child would love to receive artwork from you?
Sure, we can send blank coloring book pages, but have you ever considered coloring some of them?
Have you ever had your children, nieces or nephews do art and coloring to send to the children you sponsor with your letters?
“But Brett, I’m a horrible artist. My artwork stinks. You’ll have better luck finding a flying pig than getting me to keep my colors within the lines.”
Do you think the child will actually care if your drawing isn’t perfect?
Do you think he or she will care if you don’t stay within the lines of your creation?
Not a chance!
That child will be so proud and happy you took the time to do something special!
“I sponsor a boy and he probably doesn’t want silly pictures or coloring book sheets.”
Perhaps, but I’m sure he likes soccer/football/futbol. Why not try to draw the crest or logo of his favorite team? Or try drawing the child’s country flag.
I told my 3-year-old daughter that we were going to do art for the girl we sponsor in the Dominican Republic. She picked out a page from one of her Disney coloring books and colored it for Nara. Simple. Meaningful. Heartfelt.
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Some of the posts are quiet old. Wish there were more current posts, as things have changed since 2011 in some areas I’m sure. That said – although we would love to send our photo to our sponsored child, we are concerned with the high rate of identity theft, sending a photo of us is not safe.
What are we allowed to include in our letters? I was told that we can send stickers, coloring pages, etc., even like a pack of colored pencils for school or coloring, as long as the envelope isn’t any thicker than 1 and 1/4 “ inch thick…? Is this correct???
Hi Bridget! Thanks for reaching out! You can include items such as stickers, coloring pages, bookmarks, pictures, postcards, and other flat, scannable paper products. Regrettably, you cannot send coloring pencils, and I am sorry if you were provided with incorrect information. If you have any additional questions, please email us at [email protected]. We are happy to help!
How often can I send a letter without overwhelming my sponsored child?
Hi Caleb! Thank you so much for your desire to write often and bless your sponsored child with letters. 🙂 This is a great question, and it certainly shows your heart for your sponsored child! There’s really no cut and dried answer to your question, as you are able to write as often as you would like (as long as it’s not more than once per day!), but I would be happy to explain the process for you and give some suggestions. Letters are delivered in bulk to your sponsored child’s center once every approximately 30 days. This can be more or less often, depending on how far the center is from the National Office, as well as what kind of transportation is used to retrieve the letters. We have an insightful blog post about this process here that may be helpful for you in more deeply understanding this process! Children sit down to respond to sponsor letters about every two months. So, if you send one letter per week, then your child will receive about 4 letters each time the letters are delivered, and will have 8 letters to respond to on letter-writing day at the center.
I aim to write my sponsored children about once a month, so they’ll always have something from me when the letters get delivered, but they also won’t have a lot of letters to respond to (which, if they did, could potentially overwhelm them) when letter-writing day comes. However, you know your child better than I do, and there are some children that LOVE writing… A lot! I hope that this information I’ve given helps you decide how often you want to write. 🙂 Thanks so much for all you do as a sponsor!
If we are wanting to send stickers or cards to our sponsored child, do we mail them to the address in Colorado Springs? Thank you for your help!
Hi Mary! Yes, you are welcome to send your items to our address below:
Attn Correspondence Dept
Compassion International
Colorado Springs, CO 80997-0004
Please ensure your sponsor number and child’s number is written on every item you send, and please include a personal letter. Along with a personal letter, you can send: stickers, bookmarks, musical greeting cards, and pop-up cards. These items will be physically delivered to your child. Please keep in mind that items sent without a personal letter will not be delivered to your sponsored child. You can also send: letters, photos, postcards, greeting cards, coloring pages and paper crafts. However, your child will not receive the original items. The items will be scanned and sent electronically. The total number of items (including stationery and the letter to your child) should not be more than six sheets, and each flat paper gift item should not be larger than 8.5” x 11”. If you have any further questions about our letter writing guidelines, more information is available cintl.us/letter-faq. Thank you so much for blessing your sweet child with your love and support! Have a blessed day!
I would like to know if a young man of 16, a 7th grader, would be interested in stickers and coloring sheets? If not, what would he be interested in, in addition to our letters and photos? We are very new to this experience and at least here in the US, that would be a big no-no. Not cool. But we have no idea what is considered cool or appreciated in other countries. Also, if we do send stickers, would our young man receive them or would he receive a scanned picture of them? The description above is confusing. Thank you!
Hi Elisa! That’s a great question. It depends on each child. However, I have heard from friends who have gone and visited children in our centers that EVERYONE there loves stickers – even the parents! Because they are so rare there, it’s fun for everyone to receive. Coloring pages may not be considered as hot of a commodity, but I’m sure they would still be appreciated.
I apologize for any confusion with the above description! When you send stickers, they are physically sent to your child. Otherwise, they wouldn’t quite have the same effect! Hopefully this answers your questions.
Art is my favorite! I have only gotten 2 pictures from my girl (1 on her 1st form letter and 1 after I asked her to send me a drawing) but I cherish each of them. The 1st one is a smiling heart with 3 little messages: “Thank you for being my friend”, “God loves you”, and “God bless you”. The second one is a tracing of both of her hands and it says “Samos amigos en Cristo” which is “We are friends in Christ” in Spanish. Love it!!!!
Do these go through okay?
Hi Amy! Thank you so much for your heart for this ministry and for the love you have for your sweet girl, Aniberkis! We appreciate your desire to bless your kiddo in a very tangible way. Although this blog was written 7 years ago, you can definitely still send coloring pages to your child, blank or colored. There are other fun ways to bless your kiddo too! Along with a personal letter, you can send: stickers, bookmarks, musical greeting cards, and pop-up cards. These items will be physically delivered to your child. Please keep in mind that items sent without a personal letter will not be delivered to your sponsored child. You can also send: letters, photos, postcards, greeting cards, coloring pages and paper crafts. However, your child will not receive the original items. The items will be scanned and sent electronically. The total number of items (including stationery and the letter to your child) should not be more than six sheets, and each flat paper gift item should not be larger than 8.5” x 11”. If you have any further questions about our letter writing guidelines, more information is available here. Thank you so much for blessing your sweet child with your love and support! Have a blessed day!
This is a great idea! I never even thought of this! My daughters regularly do art in school and I will take pictures of their artwork and send them with my next digital letter to my child. Thanks for the idea!
I sent to sponsor a child latter i doing to things
lol we can be a Sponsor a child to intrast people Into I am so extra
Cards
Can you explain this more. I’m not sure I understand.
I want to send the girl my family and I sponsor a picture I’ve drawn… but I’m not sure what to draw? She is nine years old, and lives in Togo, any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
I looked up your girl’s country and I saw pictures of trees with some interesting shapes of leaves. Maybe a picture forest?
draw flowers a rainbow and have a tree with clouds and some simple birds flying
Nice one, I got something for my kid in http://coloringimage.com/. Its Coloring Images, Coloring Sheets, Printable and download for free.
Fabulous idea! I sincerely love the little hearts, houses, trees, etc. that I get from my sponsored child José. They are always simple drawings, but you can tell that they are personal and heartfelt. I recently got the most personal, heartfelt letter from José, and on the back was his drawing; it was a large red heart, with a few smaller red hearts encircling it, and on each side of the heart’s upper bumps were the words “Te Quiero” (“I Love You”). And while I just purchased a store-bought card and some construction-equipment and military-vehicles stickers last night, this ideas has persuaded me to sit down and draw him a picture. I’m certainly no artist, but it’s the love that I will send with the picture that I’m sure he’ll enjoy the most. 🙂
I totally agree with the idea. I hosted a sponsor visit yesterday and the sponsor was drawing all kind of things he had in his country and even a pet at the child’s home. Eventhough the child was 12 years old and was very quiet, she actually loved it! She kept laughing at the drawing and seeing the things she has never seen, like a snow mobile. The sponsor tried to draw and explained it to her. It was neat. There’s no language barrier in the drawing.
I teach the 5 year old’s at church and sometimes when they do a coloring sheet I will color too and then I will send the picture to one of our kids and tell them about the lesson we covered that goes with it.
This summer, I spent a lot of time in one project with the children and would see them do that artwork. They can spend a long time on each one of those drawings. They get carefully made. I’ve seen children spent 3 hours making a drawing.
Also, I taught my girl Priscila how to make a Donald Duck. Then a few months later, she drew me a Donald Duck in one of the letters and then last Thursday, she also showed me how she drew a Donald Duck!
The pictures are one of my favorite parts! I’ve scanned some of them into my computer, and made cards for my child through snapfish and shutterfly with their picture(s) on the front. I haven’t gotten any feedback yet, but I’m hoping she loves them.
I’ve drawn small pictures for her, usually trees, flowers, and hearts but due to my poor drawing skills, mainly I color coloring pages for her and then include a duplicate blank one for her to color.
My sunday newspaper also has a “how to draw” section for kids. They’re just easy three steppers, I’ve been cutting them out and saving them, I’m planning on doing a few examples of my take on them before I send them.
We love receiving and sending art! Just this past week, we painted some popsicle sticks to send to our sponsored kids. You can see them here:
http://www.sillyeaglebooks.com/2011/08/back-to-school-craft-i-love-you-sticks.html
Have you sent them before? I worry that they won’t go through, because everything we send has to be paper or cardstock.
I love, love, love the artwork that comes with Compassion letters. Our teen in India sends some amazing art our way and, in turn, I have sent him some of my own watercolors. We have also sent some “learn to draw” worksheets and neat scratch off paper where you can scratch off the top black later to reveal colorful layers underneath.
I keep a collection of drawings and colored pictures my girls do and then slip them in with our monthly letters.
Thanks for this encouragement to keep on doing this…
We discovered something called “artist trading cards” (also called ATCs) and began to send them to our sponsored kids. An artist trading card is the size of a baseball card, but it has art!
So my son decorates the cards, and we send them to our kids. Sometimes he draws, or paints, or designs them on computer. We send the cards in a flexible plastic sleeve that holds 9 baseball cards. That way the kids can keep their cards in one place. We also send blank cards, in case our sponsored kids want to send one back to us.
Sometimes we put Scripture memory verses on the cards, and sometimes we just draw designs or pictures. The cards are a good size for mailing. It’s fun to work with something so small (about 2.5″ x 3.5″) – it’s a manageable size for creating. Even I can do that. 😉
I think our sponsored kids treasure things from sponsors that come from the heart. It’s great that you are encouraging sponsors to send art to their kids! It doesn’t have to be museum-worthy. It just needs to be made with love.
Sherry, the ATC are really neat! Thanks for you the idea! I know need to go shopping to get some supplies. I think this is something that you could create a different one each month with your letters. I can’t wait to get started. I hope all of my sponsored kids love them!
What a sweet idea! I have a Sunday School class that is sponsoring a new child in Guatemala. I think I’ll have them ALL draw her pictures, then send them to her a few at a time.