‘Open When’ & Other Ideas for Your Freshmen

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‘Open When’ Envelopes are hugely popular with parents of freshmen as their kids head off to college. If you are not familiar with them, then I assure you, you will enjoy making them and your child will love opening them. This is a perfect package to leave for them as you drop them off in their dorms on move-in day.

The way it works is that you make several envelopes with little surprises in them and label them to be opened at a later point in time. For example, ‘open when you are stressed’, or ‘open when you miss home’, etc. You can make your own captions for the envelopes and add whatever you like inside -as you know your child best. But I’ll list what I did below in case you are looking for some inspiration.

The best part is that you can ask your child to make a video while they do the ‘unboxing’ and it’s such a joy to see their reactions as they open it up. Videos worked well for us also because we were in a different timezone than my son. After we set up his dorm, I left this box on his bed when he was meeting some new friends outside. It came as a complete surprise to him and I left him with instructions on how to use the box.

I have a pdf file at the end of this blog post, that has different ‘open when’ captions that you can print out and cut to size. You can then stick them onto your envelopes. I used brown envelopes similar to these here.
Brown Envelopes

I got a box from Home Goods to keep all the envelopes in and purchased some letter stickers from Michaels to write ‘Open When’ on the sides.

‘Open When’ Envelope Captions and What Went Inside

• Open First
  This needs to be kept right at the top. Inside is a note explaining how this works and the rules that apply such as ‘no peeking’, ‘don’t open them all right away’, and a few others. The pdf file at the end of this list has the rules.
  
• Open when ‘It’s your first day of class’
  A note inside asking them to take a selfie and send it to us, for the first day of class.
  We have been taking pictures of the first day of school for the last 18 years and we wouldn’t want to break tradition!
  
• Open when ‘you miss home’
  We put a small magnet of the Doha skyline and a family picture. My son had a small mini fridge in his room where he ended up sticking the magnet and picture.
  
• Open when ‘you need a treat’
  A single pack of microwavable chocolate mug cakes. These are the ones where you dump the contents in a mug, add water, and microwave.
  
• Open when ‘you’re tired of dorm food’
  I put in a gift card to the local WaWa as it was minutes from his college. But a gift card to a local coffee shop or DoorDash works well.
  
• Open when ‘you’re stressed’
  I added a printout of Surah Ad-Duha and a small stress relief coloring book.
  A similar coloring book
  
• Open when ‘you need a laugh’
  A note inside with a QR code to a funny home video of my son singing a song from when he was a toddler. It was long forgotten and so he had a good laugh! An old family video is a cute idea and linking it to a QR code makes it easy to view.
  
• Open when ‘you miss dad’
  Dad put in a token of a joke that they both share. This one got a lot of laughs.
  
• Open when ‘you miss mama’
  I added this cutest pocket hug that my son later kept in his wallet. And a squish toy that glowed in the dark. Don’t ask the significance of that. But rest assured it was perfect.
  Pocket Hug
  
• Open when ‘you miss your sister’
  My daughter made a video for him which was super cute. You can have the sibling make a video with a QR code or have them message you to get access to the video. The ‘open when’ from family members was personal with inside jokes that we shared.
  
• Open when ‘you’re missing the snack cupboard at home’
  I put a mini packet of his favorite chips in the envelope. It barely fit but I taped it up well! This snack is hard to find in his college town, but readily available in Doha which made it nice.
  
• Open when ‘you’re sick of social media’
  A printed page of sudoku and a word hunt puzzle. My son and I would do ‘word hunt’ puzzles at home by timing ourselves so I tried to keep it to something he enjoyed.
  
• Open when ‘you’re bored’ or ‘need a study break’
  Bubble Wrap! Yes, just a big piece of bubble wrap and it was oddly fun for him. Sometimes it’s the simple things.
  
• Open when ‘you want to make friends‘
  A pack of UNO cards and the Taco Cat Goat Cheese card game. I had read about this on a parents’ forum and everyone highly recommended both these packs of cards. After a year my son said that he and his friends always played UNO and it was the best thing. His friend also bought a deck of UNO and they would play with a double deck with their own rules.
  UNO
  Taco Cat Goat Cheese
  
• Open when ‘you feel anxious’
  A fidget toy and silly putty. Trust me on the fidget toys – they are the best!
  Fidget Toy
  Silly Putty
  
• Open when ‘you’re not feeling confident’
  I printed some pictures of my son’s best moments from his high school. These included his running meets, school awards nights, etc – just as a reminder of everything that has gone well.
  
• Open when ‘you have your final exam’
  A small desk frame that had an inspirational quote about mindset.
  Frame
  
• Open when ‘you need a pick me up’
  A gift card to the local coffee shop in his area.
  
• Open when ‘it’s your birthday’
  We did a birthday card with family messages in this envelope. I kept it simple because I had planned to send some treats for this birthday. So a birthday card it was! You could also do a gift card in its place.
  

Other Ideas

I had heard that kids don’t keep in touch as much after they move away to college and fair enough because they are busy starting their lives in a new place. I know as parents we are just sitting at home waiting to hear from them. Some days I would message saying just send ‘proof of life’!

Here are a couple of fun notes to leave in your child’s dorm room to make sure they call or message you.
I slipped in a couple notes in places like his clothes closet and desk drawers etc. that he found a few weeks later. A pdf is available if you want to do the same.

• Take a pic of this card and any sort of proof of life or update and I’ll Venmo you $20
  
• $20 coming your way if you call and say ‘you’re the best mom’.
  

Some parents slipped a $20 under the bed sheets so when your child changes their bedsheets they find it there! But there is a lot of debate on whether kids actually change their bedsheets or not. But I guess that is one way to find out.

I was anxious about ‘homesickness’ for my son. I did a little extra and had 3-4 uncles/aunts write a small card for him that was also hidden in his room. Trust me this took a lot of planning. One of the cards I hid in the zipper of his rain jacket. So we had to wait till he actually wore his jacket a couple months later and he realized his pocket felt heavy. Honestly, he loved finding all these little surprises.

Care packages are always a popular choice for anyone in college. There are many retailers that customize care packages. Additionally, Amazon has a great snack box that you can send as a care package. I sent the one linked below right before the midterms. He ended up sharing this with his friends and students on the floor.
Mrs. Fields also does a mean box of cookies that are always well-loved. I sent those around the holidays and got a great deal.

I hope these ideas help make the transition easier for your child and they enjoy their first year of college.