I found this idea at The Homeschool Post and thought it was such a great idea, I had to share!
We started a notebook that will contain letters between me and my daughter, its a great relationship building activity and will become a wonderful keepsake down the road! (Not to mention that it works on handwriting, spelling, and writing at the same time, and you know, if you can sneak in a little school, hey!)
But really I’m hoping to gain some treasured insight into my daughter and what goes on in that sweet head of hers. As well as strengthen our bond, and even give us some “1 on 1” time with each other that can be difficult to find in a family of 6.
I copied Beverly’s initial letter almost to the T:
“Dear ****, Would you like to be pen pals? I thought it would be fun! Instead of mailing letters to each other, we’ll keep them in this notebook.
I will write to you, and leave the notebook on your bed. Then, when you want to write me back, you write on the next page and leave the notebook on my bed. You can write anything you like. It can be funny or serious or anything you want to write. Sound like fun?
Love, Mom
P.S. Write back soon!”
I placed the notebook in one of my daughter’s workboxes for the initial introduction to it. After that we will leave it on each other’s bed. I’ll post updates to this post to let you know how it goes, and a HUGE thanks to The Homeschool Post for sharing such a wonderful idea!
So far, my daughter is LOVING this, and checks frequently in anticipation of her next letter. I’m hoping it will be a great treasure to look back on as the years roll by.
I love, love, love this idea! My daughter and I have started this after reading your post and we love it. Thanks for posting. What a way to keep some awesome memories!!Shelley 🙂
What a sweet idea, I'll keep it in mind for when my daughter is old enough to read/write.
This is such an awesome idea!!! I just started this with my kids today and they love it! I do have a little one that is 4 and not quite writing words and sentences. With her I am planning to write letters, numbers and shapes for her to practice until we get to writing. I may even ask her to draw me a picture of her favorite thing of the day.
Great idea! I have journals for each of my children, and for a while now I make entrys around their birthdays. My oldest daughter actually has a pen pal, but not my second child. I just found an empty pretty journal and wrote my first entry to her. I am looking forward to this. Thanks for sharing!
My Husband and I do that exact thing… we write to each other. I've always planned to do it to my girls when they get a little older
Hey there! I am so glad you are implementing this and enjoying it so much! Thanks for sharing! :)Beverly @ The Homeschool Posthttp://www.hsbapost.comhttp://www.homeforheavenssake.blogspot.com
THANK YOU! I have been on the look out for something to make my daughter learn to love to write. There are a lot things on the market that are supposed to do the trick, but they just don't look like they will achieve the goal of LOVING writing. Last year we tried writing letters to people of her choosing each week, but then I would not get around to mailing them. She lost enthusiam with that really quick, of course…. my fault. So maybe letter writing this Summer between the two of us will be just the thing to get her loving it.
Wow, I LOVE this idea!!! Thanks for sharing! I write to my children in journals for them to have when they're grown, but I LOVE this idea so much!!! 🙂
I remember my English teacher in highschool doing this with us. We each had a book that we could write/journal any thoughts about and then give it to her to reply. It was all private of course, but it was great to share what was on our minds, who we had crushes on, what we were struggling with etc and get great input 'off the record' from a wise adult (who was probably just fresh out of teacher training and we were all about 17….). But it was brilliant and I had forgotten all about it. Now it's on my list of things to do with Little Moo when she's older. Thank you for sharing, x