Making Writing REAL

Today Miles and I made Valentine's day cards for his class at Pre-School.  ( I admit that I TOTALLY STOLE THIS IDEA from this month's issue of Disney Family Fun pg 18.  Thanks Velma for the magazine subscription for Christmas.)  I digress...  I think that spending money on something just for the children to throw them away is stupid and a waste of money, so I made it into a learning experience.  

Miles and I used red and green stamp pads and a Happy Valentine's day stamp that I already had along with some celery to make rose cards.  The only thing I didn't have lying around the house was the celery.    It goes well with the BBQ that I recently made a pot of so it all works out well.  

Miles and I worked together to stamp the cards.  (He did most of it, but didn't want to do any red, cause "Green's the BEST!"  I offered pink, orange, yellow, or purple to stamp the flowers, but he wasn't interested.)  After we were done stamping, I had Miles make a capital M in the air and then asked him to pick up the pen that I laid on the table. (This keeps from forcing handedness. He's a lefty.)  We talked about how to make the letter M and then he went to town going, "up the mountain, down the mountain, up the mountain, down the mountain."  I did finish his name as this is the first thing that we've worked on writing his name on at home, and 24 cards is a lot for a 3 year old.  This opportunity was a prime example of how you can make writing real for your child.  Children like to have a reason or a purpose for learning things.  They want it to have meaning in their lives.  By practicing signing cards, Miles was able to use writing for a real application.  I know that they've stopped teaching (cursive) writing in schools, but I think it's important that we preserve some of the fundamental things that make us a social society.  Giving hand written cards is going by the wayside, but I know that they are a delight to receive. Seeing someone's expression when they open a gift or a card is half the fun of giving!  

It may come to pass, that we all have chips embedded behind our ears.  That we simply think about that we want to send a message to someone and what we want it to say arrives directly into that person's chip and brain.  But I hope that even if such things come to pass, from time to time someone will actually take the time to write down their thoughts and feelings in a classic card or letter form.