Uniquely Yours Craft Journal

Dear Fellow Journalers,

Mary Beth weighs in:

Trying to prompt letter writing with children is a never-ending battle. Obtuse enticements (“You’ll feel good about it”) don’t work. We tried to make the ordeal fun by making a game of it. When an event (sending a thank you to a relative for a gift) came up, we practiced a letter. We had our children write a make-believe letter in their journal. One memorable letter our son wrote was to a tv character thanking “him” for not stealing the other character’s food. The imaginative letters became stencils for the real ones.

Four of the most memorable “stencil” prompted letters are as follows:

• Your favorite ice cream shop is hiring children. Write a letter to the owner explaining 3 reasons why you are the perfect person for the job. Coincidentally, this letter helped our son when he was applying for his first job as a newspaper carrier.
• Pretend that you’re a family pet and want more freedom. Write a letter to your owners and ask for one or two new privileges and reasons why you deserve them. I can imagine what you’re thinking!!
• Think about a recent school trip. Write a letter to your cousin or grandparent describing your experience and what you learned. Convince them to take a trip there too.
• Have you ever held a grudge against the shoe laces that broke making you miss the school bus or the book pack zipper that got stuck with your school work inside? Write a letter to the object and express your disappointment.

I’m sure there were many more of these Maroney letters (five children ) but these were the ones I remember the best!

~MB