Do the acronyms lol, bff, gtg and l8tr (among others) send you packing? Whether your child attends a traditional school setting, or not, chances are they use them frequently, in their e-mails and texting. With technology at its peak, I bet a lot of children have never had the need to write a letter and send it in the mail.
I grew up with a set of grandparents in a far off country who spoke a language that I barely could write. E-mail didn’t exist and long distance phone calls were far too expensive in order to communicate. That left letter writing.
I admit to writing with the largest print I could, and triumphantly would hand my mother a letter to mail, with as many questions of the weather and their health as I could fit on a piece of notebook paper.
When our family moved to the United States from Canada, I was determined not to let my daughter fall into that pattern. Yet here I am working on the same dispassion for letter writing with her, as my mom most likely did with me.
So how does one get their child to write letters, not just because mom and dad tell them they need to, but because they want to share with others the goings on in their lives?
I think first and foremost, we need to teach our children that words, especially when written down, are powerful things. The best letters and books, are passed down through the ages to share with the next generation.
Now I don’t expect that my daughter will be writing anything to her grandparents that will shake the world, but I do want her to have a relationship with them unlike the one I had with my grandparents. Therefore we’ve implemented a few simple strategies in our home that hopefully will ingrain themselves on her heart and make her a better person for them.
1. Unless it’s a penpal or a person you don’t know well, don’t ask questions.
When writing relatives or good friends, it is a rule that we do not ask how the weather is, or how the person is doing (unless they’ve been sick). A letter can get very filled up with “nothingness” when the writer asks too many questions. The purpose is to let the person receiving it, know what the writer is doing and experiencing. In turn, when the receiver writes a letter, they will share their experiences, so there really is no need to ask those kinds of questions.
2. Letters should be written with some regularity.
We have decided in our home, to write our letters once a month. That way there is plenty of information to share. It is also a short enough time frame that it is easier to remember what we wrote last time, so we do not repeat ourselves. It gives the receiver time to respond as well.
3. The letter must be written on paper with a pen or pencil.
Even though Genius’ grandparents have e-mail, she must still physically put the writing utensil to paper. Place it in an envelope, address it, stamp it, and place it in the mailbox. There is something decidedly special about receiving something in the mailbox, that doesn’t ring with the same resonance in an e-mail inbox. The receiver acknowledges that the writer went the extra mile to provide them with information that perhaps could have been shared in a quicker, easier way. The writer is showing the recipient that they are worth the extra time and effort that a hand written letter takes.
And finally,
4. The envelope must include one other thing.
Depending on who we send the letter to, this could vary. When we mail letters to the grandparents, a hand drawn picture or a photograph of a special day is often included. If it is written to a cousin, we clip out a favorite comic from the paper or include a stick of bubble gum. Sometimes we enclose a sheet of stickers. It is just another way to make the receiver excited about the letters.
After a couple of months when a routine has been set, the children remember on their own that it’s time to write the letters. Special stationary, markers, pens, pencils or stickers can be set aside, specifically for this purpose. That makes it more fun!
Remember too, that the recipients of the letters don’t need to live in a different city, state or country. Grandpa and Grandma, or Aunt Jane and Uncle Bob, could live three streets over, but would appreciate a letter just the same I’m sure. And who knows, maybe in 100 years from now, one of these letters could be printed on a page in a history book!
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You can hang out with Tammy at Three Different Directions where when she is not reviewing products or entering contests, she just might be posting poetry about spiders.
Photo by ….Tim
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree, so many youngsters have never written a letter to their grandparents, friends, or other family members; therefore, letter writing may soon become a lost art.
With my kids, we write letters not only for homeschool purposes, but also for communication purposes. My girls write notes and letters to their grandmother often, including some of their recent artwork or other projects. They write full thank you notes to their friends after fun playdates, parties, or other gatherings. Their father travels often, so my oldest (6 yrs) also writes notes and letters to him and puts them in his “special mailbox” so he can read them all when he comes home late on Friday night from the airport. We do this so she does not forget all the things she wants to tell him by the time she sees him on Saturday morning.
Thanks for the great ideas! I think I may be borrowing a few of those.
I adored writing letters as a child. All of our relations were overseas, so I had plenty to write to-though few ever wrote back. It’s something I’ve gotten my two interested in as we live in the UK as opposed to the US–but the same problem is arising–few letters ever come back. I think that may be the biggest problem–the lack of response make you feel like you wasted your time.
I love this post, and many others, thank you!
We live in Southern California and our families live in Central Canada, so this is an issue we have been talking about even though our oldest just turned 3. For now we just mail pictures she draws.
(And those abbreviations do make me nuts when I come across them.)
thank you for this excellent post, I will be saving it for future use!