Teach kids the joys of letter writing in the age of video calling

While children are limited to letter-writing only by their curriculum requirements, there are enough and more reasons why you would want to encourage them to write in longhand and ensure that letter-writing doesn’t become a dying art. Besides helping them improve their communication skills, letter-writing goes a long way in teaching them some valuable life skills.

For starters, letters help children learn to express their feelings and emotions in a safe manner. In fact, this skill when cultivated early can help children take to writing and journaling as a way to deal with their emotions. The simple act of writing down your feelings to understand them more clearly, can become a major life skill and help keep anxiety at bay.

Another lesson that letter-writing teaches children (though thankfully not too overtly) is the importance of delayed gratification. The fact that the journey and not just the destination needs to be enjoyed, is brought to life as the child waits for that envelope in the letter box. With each day bringing about a new promise of the letter arriving, there’s thrill in the air.

While digital conversations lend themselves to immediacy, with letter-writing the importance of planning and editing and in the process more thoughtfulness regains importance in the communication process. Now these are qualities that will stand the child in good stead throughout life. Not to mention the fact that with handwritten letters, there will be something tangible to hold and to look back on for posterity.

That letter writing enhances the child’s writing abilities is also a given. A survey done in UK in 2015 shows that almost twice as many children and teenagers who write letters at least once a month write above the expected level for their age.

While the importance of letter-writing even in the age of video calling is therefore undisputed, how really do you get the child to put pen to paper. Here are some ideas to get them started:

Thank You letters

Short notes of warmth, these can be a great way to get children started on their letter-writing journey. Writing to tell grandma how much they loved the toy that she gave them on their birthday or to a friend about how they loved the bay blades and can’t wait to play with them are all good places to start.

Letter to Santa

For children in the age group, who have faith in the magic of Santa, Christmas may be the best time to start the letter-writing expedition. Encourage the child to write not just about what he or she wants but also why they think they should get it and more.

Pen pals

Encouraging them to have pen pals will help in more ways than one. Not only will the child experience the joys of letter-writing, there will be the added thrill of learning about a new place and culture with each letter. The joy of seeing stamps of new places will be a great reminder of howthese letters have made physical journeys from places the child hasn’t been to.

Once the child takes to letter-writing, a little encouragement will go a long way in helping this become a habit. There is research to indicate that kids who write letters from a young age are likely to do so as they get older.

A word of a caution though; ensure that each time the child writes, your only response to their writing is not to correct the grammatical errors. What that does for the child is to make a chore out of the writing process, which can otherwise be a soul soothing experience.

(The writer is VP-Curriculum, Footprints Childcare.)