Teach, Encourage, Motivate, Believe!

Dear Kyle,

You are usually very excited & eager to learn new things. You enjoy being challenged & you're a hard worker. So when I saw you struggling with your writing skills I was, at first, puzzled. You seemed to rush when writing - making little effort to keep your letters within the lines, much less form them "correctly". If writing was involved when it came time to do workbooks you would protest. Eventually you'd get the work done, but the finished product would look messy. I knew that you were capable of writing better. I knew that you were not applying yourself.

Writing IS hard. You have to think, focus, concentrate on each & every letter. And when you're first starting out it CAN be discouraging. Creating just one sentence can be hard. When to use upper case letters vs. lower case letters, question marks vs. comma's - it can be so confusing!One night, long after you had gone to bed, it dawned on me why you weren't embracing this new challenge. It wasn't fun. Writing was not fun for you. It was a job, a task, something you "had" to do, to get it done & overwith. I thought back to when I first started to teach you basic math, a couple of years ago. You had so much fun learning how to count - I would draw pictures of trucks, cars etc. It was SO much fun for you, because obviously you love automobiles! So I decided I needed to figure out a way to make writing fun because, in my opinion, learning SHOULD be FUN!

And so began my mission: To Teach you that writing can be fun. To Encourage you to WANT to write. To Motivate you so that you know you CAN write. And quite possibly the most important thing - to make you Believe in yourself that you're a GREAT writer!

I must have spent a good 3 hours tossing around different idea's. I decided I needed help from others in order to accomplish my mission. And so I set to work. I emailed random family members & friends requesting their participation & much to my delight mostly everyone was eager to help. My plan? To have you write (and illustrate, if you wanted to) letters to family & friends & in return they would send you a letter back. I was pretty confident that you would find this to be quite fun - you could write about anything you want as well as address the envelope, stamp it & mail it all by yourself.

The following evening I explained to you how writing & sending letters brings happiness to people. Everyone loves to receive mail & handwritten letters help to brighten days. I asked you if you would like to write a letter & maybe get one in return. You said "sure" & from that moment on, writing became FUN.

Every night we spend approx 1 hour writing a letter to a person of your choice. It's up to you to decide what you would like to write about. The only requirement is that you have to ask at least ONE question in your letter. Sometimes you make a picture to go along with the letter. Sometimes you don't. Always you do your best. You know that it's important to write neatly, so the letter can be read easily. It can be challenging for you to think of what it is you'd like to write about. Afterall, there are SO many different choices..but you're doing an excellent job!

Already you're getting lots of letters in return! You've been getting so many letters, infact, that you had to create your own little "mailbox"...decorated with the stickers that Auntie Nancy sent you with her letter:

In these pictures you're learning how to draw Monsters, thanks to the "Learn How To Draw Monsters" coloring/activity book that Auntie Rita & Rick sent you with their letter:

Another decorated side of your mailbox:

Keep up the good work, Kyle! The more you write, the easier it gets!