It’s in the Mail! Explore the Joys of Exchanging Letters
Kids love receiving and sending letters by mail. Besides encouraging reading and writing, posting letters provides children with insight into a fascinating process that involves numerous people and vehicles working together over long distances. What could be better!
Here are ideas to get you started.
Write a Letter
Mailing a letter, drawing, or photo to a grandparent or friend is a great way to stay in contact. Encourage your kids to write letters and design cards that are interesting and original. Consider the different occasions that call for communications. A card can say thank you; get well soon; be my valentine; happy birthday—or simply "hello." See what you and your kids can come up with in sending these and other messages.
Visit the Post Office
A trip to the post office to buy stamps makes a wonderful excursion. Kids can compare the designs on stamps and use the vending machines to buy them. If possible, observe the mail-sorting and distribution routines. Look at all those forms! Look at the scales and note how weight matters. Watch the trucks pull up. You and your kids will share a glimpse into a complex system that relies on the cooperation of many workers.
Create Your Own Inter-Family Mail
Kids can also write and distribute notes at home. It's fun for them to create messages, design their own envelopes and stamps, and use a basket or bag to deliver messages to their very nearby destinations. There's magic in writing a message and having someone else decipher the message—hours or days later.
Share the Joy of Receiving Letters
There is something very special about receiving a personal letter in the mail. Grandparents, uncles and aunts, and yes, even parents, can write to their kids. So much correspondence has been replaced by e-mail that it's easy to forget the pleasure of opening an actual letter and reading the contents.
Observe the Mail You Receive
Noting the postmarks on your mail is a great way to learn geography. Give your kids some nonessential, incoming mail to sort, from your own state or from out of state. Talk about the places the letters come from and try to find them on a map. Also look at the stamps. There's a reason that stamp collecting is such a popular hobby, and today's stamps are more varied and interesting than ever.
Highlights High Five™ includes a "Mail a Letter" feature in the February 2008 issue. Learn more by going to the High Five Parent/Teacher Guide.