Teaching Your Children the Power of Snail Mail (a review)

posted in: Books, parenting | 0

Those who know me know I love snail mail.  I think I always have, pen pals when I was younger, getting mail from my Mom when I was in college, and now writing letters and surprising people with a note or letter or fun little gift.  It just makes my day to give!

I want to instill gratitude and snail mail love in my boys.  What better way to do that?  Here are some tips:

  1.  Find cute stationery themed for boys or girls.  Blogging for Books sponsored this post by sending me Wee Alphas – a book of cute and original animal post cards.  I love them.  They not only help my boys learn the alphabet, but it will be fun to use to write postcards to people as well.  But, for us, it is going to be room decoration in the next house we live in come January.  (Another good thing about Wee Alphas is that all the postcards are attached in an accordion book and you can rip each out as you go – so you don’t lose them.)
  2. Help them know what to write.  Whether your children know how to write or not, you may need to help them know what to write.  When writing thank you notes, or even letters (especially to grandparents), you may have to coach them.  This is also a great way to teach them gratitude.
  3. Make it a habit.  Maybe write one letter a week, especially older children, write letters to older men or women in your church, have them ask questions that will help them seek after God.  Older men and women in the faith will be a great encouragement to you and your children.  (I digress).  Seriously though, making letter writing a habit might instill this in them when they get older.  And, you can have fun field trips to the post office to meet the postmaster, talk about where mail goes, and look at the cool mail trucks (my younger loves them).

How do you encourage your children to write letters and/or reach out to others who are older than them?

All opinions are my own.