More Letter Writing for Kids

Read a great post on the many educational and social benefits of letter writing at The Pioneer Woman last week. The post, written by blogger Kristen Chase, is part of a whole section on homeschooling that is part of the wonder of Ree Drummond's fab web site. You can read the letter writing blog entry here.

It's great to realize how many very educational activities you can do with kids that are part of every day activities. Once I started reading more homeschooling blogs I really was inspired by how creative and innovative home schooling has become. With the assistance of the internet, there are so many fantastic resources available.

So letter writing was on the agenda this week. So if you've sent The Little Bug a letter lately, you can expect one in return. :) There are also a few other people who will receive letters this week. Thought I'd share with you some of the "best of" lines from the letters that were dictated to me this week.

Dear Grandpa,


I hear you are not feeling well. I hope you will feel well soon...I say a prayer for you every night. I hope God will protect you. It's important. If you feel better soon, you can come see me and we can do something fun like go to the mall....

I just imagine that there is nothing a grandpa who hasn't been feeling well would rather do than go to THE MALL! Super fun. Haa-haa.

Dear Aunty C,


You can get some shade because it's HOT in Las 'Begas'. You need to get an umbrella to cool yourself off and a fan and a flower for your hair. You do a lot of stuff....


...I think you're great. You do stuff with me. Don't forget you love me. I miss you and I like you. When I see you we can pretend it's mother's day and easter. (Have no idea where this came from.)


I was a thinking we could meet you today. We could get ice cream and have some fun. I would be so happy to see you. But writing you a letter is so happy instead....


Love the random thoughts.

Dear J, (4 yrs. old),


Thank you for your letter. I liked it a lot....Maybe I can see you and we can have some fun sometime. We can talk about dinosaurs and sea creatures...like sea horses.

Sounds like a lot of fun to me!

Dear Aunty T,


I wanna have some fun with you. Have more and more and more and more fun...I love you and miss you. Are you being good...? I hope you will be fine at home. I want to visit you and eat with you and I wanna have some fun and watch TV, like a kid movie...We can erase with pencils...


I hope you feel well and DON'T SMOKE! (hilarious) I hope we can have some fun and sharpen pencils. Maybe we can color together a lot....I miss you a bunch. If you feel good, then pray.


Love,
A.

I took photos of all the letters so we have a record of them. She will love looking back at these in later years. She drew a picture and colored it on one side of the letter, then we write the letter on the other. Then I have her draw a little picture on the envelope. She drew a hamburger for Aunty C., a flower for Aunty T., a flower for grandpa and J. got a spider "because he's a boy." (And of course, all boys must love spiders. haa-haa).

I am more and more convinced about what a great experience writing letters is for kids. It's an art project, involves words, sentence construction, spelling, paper folding, envelope stuffing, stamps, addresses, learning about the post office and mail carriers. It would be so great for kids to have pen pals and trade letters with cousins or friends from different part of the country or world.

The best part was we mailed the letters, then went out to run a few errands and do dinner. When we got home she said, "I wonder if C and T have gotten their letters yet." The grown ups had a good laugh about that. I have some grown up letters that need to be written now. Happy letter writing.