April, National Card & Letter Writing Month

There is just something about receiving an honest-to-goodness letter that is thrilling to me. Whether from a friend or a relative, seeing a handwritten letter or card with my name on it tells me that I am loved. Someone took the time to pick up a pen, compose their thoughts, and send them my way.

Letters were at one time a mainstay of communication. Today, with email, social media, instant messages, and who-knows-what-else, letter writing has taken a dive in popularity. Just ask the Postal Service. The art of letter writing is losing ground in our high tech society.

There was a time when it might take a letter several months to reach the reader. The reader? They were desperate to get their hands on it, and very glad it arrived at all. The news ended up not being new by the time it arrived, but it was a connection to home.

For me, I wrote letters back and forth with my cousin as a child. We carried on a friendship through letters back when long distance phone calls were insanely expensive (or at least that’s what we all thought!). My mother and grandmother exchanged letters between twice yearly visits and sporadic phone calls. Today, having those letters, seeing my grandmother’s writing warms my heart.

Perhaps no letter has been more desperately anticipated than those from my sons while they were in Basic Military Training. For those long weeks of physical and mental exhaustion, the men and women are virtually locked away from all that is familiar. Letters – writing and receiving them – are a great privilege. They are more precious than gold!

So you know what I’m going to say next, right? Kids need to write letters, with pens and paper. They need to mail them! Yes, that’s right!

Today, just because it’s National Card & Letter Writing Month, we are going to write letters. I hope you join us and do the same thing too! We are going to pick someone who is important to us – not our Mom or Dad, brother or sister – but someone we care enough about to send a letter to. Then we will start writing – topic will depend on who we are writing to, but we will craft with care.

Just for fun, I think we’ll use that old Hamburger graphic organizer:

            Top bun – Introduction

            Lettuce/Tomato – Support paragraph #1

            Cheese – Support paragraph 2

            Meat – Support paragraph #3

            Bottom bun – Conclusion

I don’t know who invented that organizer for writing, but it is awesome! Kids can visualize a sandwich so easily… Me too. Yum! We can write delicious pieces that way!

We will do a draft first, then a good copy because our reader deserves the best work we can do! Of course we’ll put a proper salutation and a closing, sign them and off they will go!

What are you going to write today?