monday missions :: write a letter

monday missions: a simple idea to add a little magic to your week.

This week, I want to share a newish hobby that we have been enjoying - writing letters. Once or twice a week, after learning lab (our version of homeschooling, where we work on projects and skills together) we gather supplies and work on our correspondence. My kids write letters to friends, grandparents and a particular uncle who provides us with all the wild reptiles and amphibians we need.


What is strange, is that most of the people we write to are local. And we see them several times a week! But the process of writing a letter and then telling the recipient to be on the look out for something cool or funny seems to make the process more enjoyable. Maybe because the letters go back and forth at such a fast pace? Whatever the reason, they are all having a blast!


So, what do you say to someone you see frequently? Well, we share jokes or ask questions, survey style, with little handwritten boxes. We also love to send things. For awhile there was a multigenerational  button exchange going on. Today,  my son sent his pen pal a fancy pipe cleaner and asked her to send him a cool pipe cleaner back. My very favorite exchange was when his pen pal sent a photograph of her sky and asked him to do the same - which he did. My daughter sent her much younger pen pal a tiny little container with a scrolled up note asking him to find the tiniest object he could fit into the container. One kid gives weekly updates to his uncle about the state of our tadpole colonies.


Whatever silliness happens each week, we are enjoying connecting with our friends in new ways and honing our writing skills along the way. I have been inspired to join in the fun and have been sending out some snail mail too. And when the mail comes each day and the kids all ask (as kids through out all of time must have), "Did I get anything?" I can usually say, "Yes!" And that is worth more than the price of a stamp.