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Jasmin Nato | | Page 2
Hand written letters are obsolete. We live in a text and email age. Our grandchildren could very well be the last generation to read and write cursive writing. This is a sad fact. Under Common Core standards, learning cursive writing is no longer required. Granted, some schools still deem it necessary and teach it. If that’s your child’s school, count it as a blessing. However, you can use this unfortunate turn of events to your benefit–by becoming your child’s pen pal.
Think of it. Your long-hand letter, is now a secret-code between you and your grandchild.
Besides the importance of learning to read and write cursive, if not only to read historical documents, it is a unique way to say “I love you” to your grandchild.
We take letter writing for granted. Those of us who spent hours in school writing sheets of papers filled with words. This is not always the case for our grandchildren. A letter in the mail with your name written on it is a special event to a child.
Add to that the your words of affirmation, blessings, and encouragement, makes that folded piece of paper a treasured gift for any child.
Ken Canfield puts it this way:
“I believe in speaking affirming words to your grandchildren, but letters allow them to stretch out and savor that affirmation. They’ll feel eager anticipation when they see the folded note or sealed envelope, addressed to them and no one else. Then they see your scrawled, sweeping handwriting, and know that’s you on the page. Maybe they’ll even put it in their pocket ‘til later, when they can really focus on what you’ve written.
You don’t have to be eloquent or even grammatically perfect—just write from the heart. Maybe include an interesting clipping you saw in the newspaper or online, or use stationery that goes with your grandchild’s interests. Or write on your company stationery, and let your grandchild experience some of the dignity of your profession.”
Just recently my mother passed away. In going through her belongings, I found letters to me, that she had saved, from my own grandmother.
My grandmother wrote me just a couple of letters, and sent pictures of my dad when he was a boy.
Honestly, I don’t really remember getting them as a child. Now almost fifty years later, I discover just two letters from my dad’s mother. And frankly, they mean more to me now than they did when I originally received them. To read them again, hearing her voice, and seeing the beautiful script of almost a century ago, was breath taking. She didn’t write of earth shaking news. There was nothing profound. And yet, that in itself, made it so wonderful. She wrote of everyday life, and the memories of her boy. What could you write today? That one day, a new generation, will see it as a secret code to unravel– and when they do, they find the treasure of you.
