Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Dear Friends,
In thinking about different activities for our school day, I have added letter writing to our daily schedule. This serves many purposes for us. It expands our creative writing. It helps with spelling and grammar. It enhances our handwriting. It brings us closer to the family member or friend we are writing.
Have you taught your children to write a letter? If you have a friend or family member who lives far away, start writing them letters. Ask them to write back to your children. If you have an out of town friend who has children close to the ages of your children, consider having them become pen pals. I remember having a pen pal when I was a child. I am still friends with her today.
Having a house full of boys, letter writing has not been popular. But I have stuck with it, and I am requiring it this year. I think it is an important skill, and I am seeing them improve in their skills.
Teach them the parts of the letter as you are writing. You have the date, salutation, body of the letter, and signature line. Most of our letters have a paragraph or two written by each of us.
If you have very young children, start with them dictating a letter to a grandparent, and then ask them to illustrate the letter. It is very interesting to see what things small children find fascinating to write (or dictate) in a letter.
In a digital age, letter writing is a skill that is not practiced as much as it was in the past. Let’s keep this alive into the next generation.
Start thinking about your Christmas card list. Your children can help you by signing their names if you start early and do a few cards a day. It will make your cards special to the recipients.
Teach your children how to address and envelope from the recipient name and address to your return address. Show them where to put a postage stamp.
See if you can tour your local post office. My homeschool group does this every couple of years, and the children find it interesting to see how the mail is sorted to be delivered to our homes.
What are some other ways to encourage writing and literacy in children that you can do?
Today’s Zone Mission is to detail dust the dining room and put out some fall decorations.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is pizza and a salad.
Have a wonderful weekend!
