Dear Son

With all the marvelous texting, emailing, posting, and blogging we have nowadays, do our children even know what a written letter is?  Remember?  The act of putting pen to paper then having it delivered (not instantly) to the patient recipient on the other side?  This dying art is actually a great way to encourage and improve your son's reading and writing skills.  Try this fun idea: set up a mini-mailing system at home where you can slip each other short letters and notes!

Step One:
Make this a crafting project too.  Use shoe boxes or any other receptacle that may work (e.g. tupperware, flower pot, etc.), and decorate/personalize it.  You can also help your son cut a slit in the box to resemble a mail slot.  It's also fun to write each person's name and address on their mailboxes. 

Step Two:
Place the mailbox in an obvious place, like outside their room or designate a spot in the family room as the 'family mail center'. 

Step Three:
Write your son short notes and letters and encourage a response with it.  You can do this once a day, once a week, whatever suits your family's pace.  Some good times to jot something down for him - before you leave for work, before you leave for the night and he'll be with a babysitter, before he goes to bed, after he goes to bed so he may get the letter in the morning. 

Here is an example:

"Dear Owen,
How was your day at school?  What did you do at recess today?  Did you like the book Mrs. C. read you this afternoon?  Jane will be here to babysit you until dinner; I hope you have fun hanging out with her and I will see you at dinner.  I thought we can play a fun board game tonight before you go to bed!  I'm thinking Snakes and Ladders!
Love, Mom"

Try to keep the language simple, but don't worry about the vocabulary too much.  Your son will understand the gist of the letter even when he is not familiar with a few words in it.  You, other family members, or a babysitter can also help him with the harder words.

This activity is really great because it only takes a few minutes to write a short letter, but it it can also be a very effective way to engage your son while making reading and writing fun for him.  It makes reading and writing a part of everyday life and can hold his interest because it's an outlet for expressing his thoughts.  Some boys have a difficult time processing events and thoughts into cohesive, written sentences so this is good practice (and you can help guide him by asking questions).  He might also really enjoy this special communication with you; it is a little harder for boys to verbalize their feelings and emotions and writing these letters can also help him understand and communicate these feelings. 

Other tips:
It can be fun to encourage siblings to write each other short letters too.

You can also slip short notes or letters into your son's lunch box. 

He might become interested in writing letters to other people like teachers, friends, and relatives.  You can use this opportunity to teach him about the mailing system and bring him along on your next trip to the post office. 

Encourage him to also draw pictures for the mailbox if he is ever having trouble finding something to write about.

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