My Children Learned to Love Writing

When my children were young, I wanted to find a fun way to encourage their reading and writing skills. Of course, I didn't want them to think of it as work, but rather, wanted to instill the love of both reading and writing in them.

This was a time when the computer was not commonplace in every household. Families were still communicating mainly by telephone and sending letters, which is now referred to as “snail mail”.

I designated Monday nights as letter writing nights. The children and I would all sit down at our large dining room table with plenty of colored stationery, stickers and gel pens. Regular pens were also made available. Everyone would decide who they would write to that week. Oftentimes, the children ended up writing more than one letter at a sitting.

In the beginning, the kids needed lots of guidance and ideas about what to write about. However, it was not long until they didn't need any help with this at all. They were very creative with the letters content and the recipients of the mail loved getting the colorful letters. Sometimes photos and postcards were included with the letter.

Monday nights ended up being one of my kids' favorite nights. They'd anxiously look forward to letter writing night and gather stickers, bookmarks and items they would enclose with their letters. They soon started to receive replies to their letters and were even more excited when mail arrived addressed to them personally. This of course led to more writing of letters and more reading of letters.

This was a very positive, memorable experience for the children and me. It was a time of bonding and a time of sharing which turned into a time to treasure.