How to Write Fun, Personal Letters to Your Grandchildren

These days, kids start out with a keyboard for communication in their hands. They text, twitter, IM and email to stay in contact. They "talk" in shortened words, creatively made-up lingo and their thumbs do all the work. Whatever happened to the "fun of it"? As grandparents we are from the generation that used pencils and paper. In "our day" we wrote letters on stuff called paper, mailed the letters through the United States Post Office and anxiously waited for a return. How fun that was!

I encourage all grandparents to start communicating with their grand children via the hand written, personal letter. Yes, WRITE - with your own hand - not text, IM or call on a cell phone that you can't even figure out how to accept the call, but literally (and wonderfully) use the hand written word! The kids will love opening the mailbox out by the curb and seeing a letter with their name on it!

My two grand daughters live relatively close, but due to parent work schedules and school, I don't get to see them as often as I would like to. So I have reached back in time and use that wonderful form of distant communication called the "letter". I write letters to them.. by my own hand,...on real paper...with a pen/pencil....and mail the letter using that old-fashioned organization called the Postal Service! Have you ever heard of it? Every town has one. Current "techie" lingo refers to it as "snail mail". Your letters are literally brought nearly to their door!! And all they have to do is walk out to the mailbox at the curb and open what seems like a Christmas present on Christmas morning! I write, USPS delivers, the kids enjoy! How simple is that! And I don't have to run up a credit card... I simply clean out the coin change from the bottom of my purse and off the communication device goes! Both grand daughters absolutely love receiving their very own "mail" and brag about to their friends at school! And if I miss a week and they don't get a personal, activity letter from me... they certainly let me know about it!

However, I do more than just write a personal letter about day to day issues. I make the letter an educational, fun-filled, activity for the child. I include things to do like puzzles, paper crafts and other paper activities.

How to Make an Interesting Activity Letter for a child in this "techie world"?

All you have to do is use the "techie world" to find things you need and adjust them to what you want for the child. Many sites offer free, printable stationery, lined or blank, so you can have themed stationery. I have found some sites that have cut outs, coloring pages, games, mazes, "homework" sheets and so much more! Just do an online search for "free _____________ printables." Fill in the blank as to what you are looking for like "free Halloween printables" and you will find sites offering free printable pages of activities of all kinds to include with your letter to your grand child.

For some fantastic stationery geared for kids, check out Learning Treasures. You can either print from there or save the page to your photo editor and then print it out from there. It is nice that each page has the sites URL on the bottom so if the children or parents want to print more or choose a stationery for a return letter, they can go to the site and the kids can choose what they want to use.

I also try to keep education a key factor for the kids, although I don't let them know it! I include activity pages for them to do. Mazes, math games, writing skill activities, puzzles etc. Seems if the kids do something "educational" on their own in a fun way, they learn better as opposed to knowing they have to do it because it is "homework." Always choose themes that are the child's favorite. Doing math while counting dolphins is much more fun than just a page from the math book! It's alot of fun to use the current holiday as the theme for letter writing activities MsRossBec.com is a great place to get flash cards that can be cut out and have fun with while learning.

My youngest grand daughter can't read or write yet, so I find things like "match it up" or "memory game" where she can color the pages and then cut out the squares with child safe scissors and start playing the game herself.

How to Make an Interesting Activity Letter for a Child
Coloring pages are also a great additional to the personal, activity letter to your grand child. Most ages love to color and if you send their favorite character or topic, they'll have the crayons out in seconds! Since I am starting to teach her to write letters of her name, I have been sending her a pages of the letters of the alphabet to help her learn how to write the letters.

Another site where I look to find children's activities to include in the letter is Free Printables. This site is a fantastic place to find stationery, charts, work pages, etc. And for paper crafts, Family Fun Magazine is a fantastic site to visit... it is an online magazine and the paper crafts they offer are just great. Choose a craft project, print out the instructions and include it with the letter. The kids can make the craft at home!

More Ways to Make an Interesting Activity Letter for a Child

When I find a cute picture in a magazine that I know the 9 year old child would relate to... I cut it out and send it with a piece of lined paper and tell her she has to give the character a name and write a story about an adventure she and this character go on. I do this as this child LOVES to write stories. This helps her with her writing skills as well as use her imagination...while having fun!

Writing personal, activity letters to the grand children is a wonderful adventure to embark on for both you and the kids. You are bringing the two of you together when you are apart while teaching them reading, writing, math and grammar skills. You are giving the children things to do to exercise their brains, thought process and imaginations, just by showing them how much you love them!. And all this... simply because Grandma misses them!

So come on, Grandmothers of America! Unite and bring a forgotten yet fun and exciting part of the past into the present for your grand children to enjoy! They don't know what they are missing! It is up to us to enlighten them! And just think... all over a simple pencil, a piece of paper and a little thing called a postage stamp!