I’m ‘posting’ a letter to Riley..

…to help him discover the beauty of receiving snail mail

…to encourage him to read

…to motivate him to write back

…to remind him what a wonderful older brother he is

…to tell him mummy loves him.

Nothing beats the excitement of receiving genuine snail mail

I loved checking the letter box when I was young. The rush of going through mail and seeing something addressed to me was always a trill. Be it a christmas card or a letter, being able to open and read the messages inside was a wonderful experience.

Now only bills and advertisements arrive in our mailbox.

Still, my 4 year old Riley would excitedly ask me whether there is anything inside for him every time we open it. Even when it’s just advertising junk mail, he would clutch to them like gold, saying that he wants to go through them.

So i’ve decided to surprise Riley by writing him a real letter

He’s been a real trooper lately with helping to take care of his little brother. We have recently moved them into the same bedroom so Corey’s nightly itch fest at 3am also wakes Riley. My focus on managing Corey’s itch at bedtime and nighttimes has resulted in neglecting older bro’s usual bedtime stories. So I thought surprising him with a letter would be a great way to remind him just how special he is to me.

An experiment to encourage simple learning

I know he will be happy (I can’t wait to see his reaction!). But more so, I hope to encourage the gift of simple learning in letter writing and receiving. This will be a little experiment to see whether we can start a new tradition of old school communicating.

Let’s slow down and connect FOR REAL

Our world might be busy pushing the ‘send’ button to email replies and Whatsapp messages. But for my little 4 year old, I hope I can delay the rush towards these electronic communication.

Next up, I’ll be posting Riley’s reaction to receiving his first REAL letter in our mail box!