365 Days of Literacy for Kids: March into March with Actual Post Office Letters to Your Kids

LITERACY is all about WORDS – Written, Spoken, Felt.  Why not revive the art, the intrigue and the magic of putting pen to paper in your own words and dropping a line!

In 365 Days of Literacy for Kids, your children were introduced, in January,  to 31 poems by 31 different poetspoems from every corner of the globe and carrying many voices and themes through WORDS.

February is bringing 28 Days of Adjectives, 56 Adjectives in all,  introducing your children to expressive, descriptive, awesome WORDS that will enrich their speaking, writing and, of course, reading.

Marching into March, March will bring WORDS through the MAIL in letters. 31 Letters.


Ah… the excitement of a letter in the mail.  The real mail.  The mailbox, mail slot, post office box, actual Post Office kind of mail.

The kind of mail with a hand-addressed envelope and canceled stamp in the upper right corner.  Mail with ONE’S name on it.

In our fast paced world of quick texts, emails, tweets, Facebook entries, we are losing the art of correspondence… putting pen to paper in the rich tradition of exchanging letters, communicating by mail, dropping a line. Our children and grandchildren are being denied the great feeling of receiving hand-written letters, feeling the anticipation in opening letters, feeling the paper in hand as words come alive… and then keeping the letters in some safe place to read and re-read.  Forever.

Do you remember the awe inspired by that one envelope in the mail addressed to you?

HOLD ONTO THAT THOUGHT because you are going to be *Marching into March with Actual Post Office Letters to Your Kids… and/or grandchildren, nieces/nephews, neighbors, friends.

Marching into March with Actual Post Office Letters to Your Kids may sound like a mouthful, but this 31 Letters project will take no more than 5 minutes per day.  Promise.

You’re going to be writing one very short (or long, if you’d like) letter to your child/children each day in March.  31 Letters.  You will find a specific prompt each day, here on 365 Days of Literacy for Kids. The prompts will tie loosely into the 31 poems in January and/or the 56 Adjectives in February.  Each prompt will be about YOUa discovery of YOU in your own WORDS for your children.

Explain to your children that this 31 Letters project is kind of like writing a little book in little chapters.  Your child/children will be READING the story of your life.  In your own WORDSDropping a line… or 31!

There’s a bit of preparation to get ready for March 1st, so here goes:

1.  Gather your stationery, pens & pencils, stickers, stampsBe as formal or informal as you like… monogrammed, etched, folded cards, cute cards, tiny cards, copy paper. Use the very same stationery each day or mix it up.  Use fabulously colorful pens or simple black/blue ink.  Use cute, elegant, crazy, fun stickers.  Let your personality or the particular daily prompt dictate your correspondence materials.  Use standard issue postage stamps or mix it up with varied commemorative stamps.  Keep your correspondence materials handy.

2.  Tell your child/children (or whomever you are writing) that letters will be arriving in the mailExplain that these letters are a way to keep the beautiful tradition of correspondence through the mail.  Explain that these letters will be all about YOU… perhaps something your child/children (or grandchildren, etc.) do not know about you.  It is a DISCOVERY through WORDS. You may wish to supply your child/children with a special box or notebook or binder in which to keep your letters.

3.  Suggest that your child/children/grandchildren answer your letter(s) in their own hand or dictate to an older sibling or adult and mail these letters to YOUYou may want to supply awesome stationery and stamps for this just-in-case

3.  Beginning March 1st, visit 365 Days of Literacy for Kids – Fun, Easy & Completely Do-able each day – There will be a simple prompt for you to finish, answer, respond to in writing… depending upon the age of the child/children you are writing to.

4.   Enclose the letter in an envelope, address it properly, affix a stamp and mail it. Experience the delight and the conversations that ensue.


(*5.  Keep this Literacy Project uncomplicated – If you skip a day or two, or mail 4 letters on the same day, or ask someone else to answer a few prompts… it’s all good.  If you mail one letter to 2 or more children, that’s good too.  In fact, that’s what I’m going to be doing.  I have 3 sets of grandchildren… 2 kids in one family, 3 in another family and 4 in yet another family.  I will be hand-writing the same content to each family and mailing 3 letters to 3 families.)

I’ll also be passing along an interesting MAIL TIDBIT each day.  Today’s MAIL TIDBIT: A mail-coach was a stagecoach used for the conveyance of mail… a system introduced by Englishman John Palmer in 1784.  How awesome would it be for our mail to be delivered by mail-coach today?

About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

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