Newsletter – Indulge – November 26, 2021

Tips for Families
Here’s an activity to do with some children you love during the holidays . . .
• Provide a stack of writing paper, envelopes, sharpened pencils, and postage stamps. Also provide some index cards with the names and addresses of friends and family clearly written as they would be written on envelopes, one address per card. (If you want to be really fancy, you can even provide a cute tote or basket to store all of these supplies.)
• Invite the kids to write a short, sweet note to the folks for whom you’ve provided addresses. (Think: grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins, teachers, neighbors, coaches, family friends, etc.)
• To add to the excitement, you can also add sticks of gum, photographs, drawings, or other fun-to-receive surprises that your little writer can add to the love-filled messages they’re sending to special people in their lives. Remind the kids that they can ask the recipients of their kind notes to write back, soon, so they might get some additional gratification and excitement. Be sure the extra gifts fit into the envelopes you’ve chosen and that they don’t add to the cost of postage. We want to keep it simple so their letters can be put in the mailbox every day. Let the kids take the completed mail to the mailbox and put up the flag on the mailbox themselves.
• As they’re writing their letters, you can invite your kids to ask someone if they need help with spelling some words. When they do so, the adult will use an index card to write the word the child is requesting in large, clear letters. As the adults record the requested words, they should make the sounds as they write each letter or letter combination. They can even say things like, “The word Christmas has a c-h that says /k/. I would have thought it would say /ch/ like Cheerios, but sometimes c-h says /k/ like in school and stomach.” They should also note when the requested word requires an uppercase letter. The kids should keep these “spelling word cards” with their supplies in case the same word is needed again.
• I like to use those cheap single roll photo books to store the requested words. When kids no longer need a word (because they know how to spell it now), they can ceremoniously crumble that word card into a ball and toss it into the recycling bin. We don’t need it anymore, because now we know it! Of course, there will always be new words we want to learn that can fill those empty spots.
• Remember that we should save the coaching, here, for only when the kids request it. Remind the kids that their loved ones will treasure the notes, even if they have some errors.
This is a love-filled tradition that can promote a love for writing, too!
P.S. We know that emails work, too, but there’s something special about sending and receiving mail in the physical mailbox that kids (and lots of adults) adore.