The first thing you will want to do as a parent is understand at what these card will be used for.  You can check out the TED talk on “Because I Said I Would” to get an idea of how you will use these cards.   Now that you know what you would like this to be for your family, you can imagine that this activity is great for all ages and it can be as elaborate or as simple as you want.

Here’s What to Expect…
  • Age Range: Any Age (even adults)
  • Time: A minimum of 10 minutes but you can spend a whole afternoon on this if you like
  • Supplies: This will vary quite a lot depending on how you want your cards to look but here are the essentials
    • Some type paper for the cards.  They can be as small as a business card or as big as an index card.  The paper will need to be thicker than regular paper so that they will last.  You could use:
      • Index cards
      • Construction paper
      • Card stock
    • Maker or pen. You can have an assortment of colors if you like or a simple black.
    • Cutting Tool. You won’t need a cutting tool if you are using index cards or anything that is already at the size you want the final cards to be.  However if you want to make them smaller than the paper size you are using you will need something.  You could use:
      • Scissors (age appropriate for your kids)
      • Paper Cutter
    • Optional Suppliers. If you want to make this more of an event you can have many different items to engage your kids:
      • Glitter & Glue
      • Washi tape
      • Colored Pencils or Crayons
      • Stamps
      • Stickers
      • Etc.
  • Final Product: The goal of this is to have a stack (of multiple stacks) of “promise cards” ready to write on and hand out when someone in the family would like to make a commitment.
Here’s What You’ll Do…
  1. Cut all the cards to the size that you want them to be.
    If they are already the size that you want then move on to step 2.  Otherwise, you can cut them yourself of have your kids cut them.  If you really want to be creative you can have some large stencils and draw our different shapes and then cut them in those shapes.  You can have them a standard size or vary them.  It is all up to you and your kids – but remember that you will want to have space to write what your commitment is one one side so make sure you don’t cut them too small.
  2. Write “because I said I would.” on the bottom of each card.
    You will want to make sure that this is small enough that there is space for the actual commitment above it when you or your kids give them out.
  3. Decorate the back as much or as little as you want
    Make sure that you leave the front clear enough for the commitment to be written and to be highlighted.  I prefer to not have any decorations on the front.  But on the back you can have the kids do whatever they want on the back – color with markers or crayons, use stickers or glitter or stamps, or even put their own special signature.  It is also OK if you don’t want to decorate them at all.  They are ready to be stacked up and handed out when anyone in the family makes a promise or commitment to another person.

While you’re doing this craft, use the time to talk about the value of commitment or whatever the relevant character trait of the week is.  Talk about how you will use these cards and how you will be able to celebrate keeping your word when you get a card back.  Now you can introduce this to anyone in the family who wasn’t around for craft time and start using these cards to build character together!

It is a good idea to also have something to put completed cards into as a way to remember and celebrate what has been done.  You can use something as simple as an old tissue box or shoe box or you can take some time to make something more elaborate in another craft time!

Please share your thoughts or pictures.  What has worked well for you and your family?