Here is a longer table with supplies including fun stamps and inkpad, a member's folder with photos for pen-pals and stationary inside. Writing letters the old fashioned way is a creative, fun activity for curing the Summertime Blues!

All you need are some pencils, pens, some stickers and paper to begin a Letter Writing Club. Also shown here are some letter stencils for decorating.

The clipboard has a sign in sheet for members!

Postcards from Our Vacation

Armed with plenty of postcard stamps, Luke is ready to send some postcards out from our various stops during out travels. We bought scenic postcards from Mt. Shasta, CA, the coast of Oregon and a few places along the way. 

I had all our addresses packed with us, so Luke sent about a half dozen cards out. He did complain, but when we got home, he had a card waiting for him.

Tomorrow we are writing thank-you notes with pictures from our trip on the front. I help with the addressing and he will do the writing inside. I'm hoping for 2-3 sentences. The way he reacts when I ask him to do this is probably typical, but I'm not giving him a root canal, for pete's sake!

I'll keep you posted. Still determined to keep him writing this summer!

Anne Z

(glad MOM to be home from vacation!)

Impromptu Club Meeting

We had a free afternoon and we emailed a couple of Luke's friends to see if they would come ove and write some letters. Sure enough, our third meeting took place.

Three boys writing: George Lucas (we know this address works), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo/Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford). I went to fanbiz.com to get the other addresses. Perfect for 6, 7 and 8 year old boys! Next they are going to write Princess Lea!

We will be leaving on vacation this Friday and will be in postcard writing mode. We have a bunch of 28¢ stamps ready to go!

Today instead of spelling help for each kid, we used the white board and three different colors to help with what they wanted to say. Worked well.

We'll see what mail comes when we are gone.

Luke did get a letter today from his teacher. She promised to write anyone back who wrote to her. 

Hey, that's our club's Oath. We Promise to write back anyone who writes us!

More next time!

AnneZ

George Lucas Photograph Came in the Mail

Success! My son's first letter garnered a photograph back in the mail. A color one to boot!

George Lucas' secretary sent a nice letter, saying that Mr. Lucas can't personally sign every request for an autograph, but sent a nice one of George and a Star Wars character to Luke within one week's time!

Not sure who was more excited, Luke or me! I'm just looking for a bit of inspiration to keep Luke writing this summer.

Our second meeting of the letter writing club only had 2 kids besides Luke come. Summer camps are keeping us from bigger attendance, but we will carry on!

Luke entered his dog in a contest by Jack and Jill magazine on "Why my pet is so cool..." That counts as another letter sent.

In addition, he wrote his teacher and send a postcard!

Just keep writing...writing...writing.

AnneZ

Happy Mom

Summer Letter Writing Club Begins!

My son has just finished 1st Grade. The teacher had them writing all year long: writer's workshop, interactive journals, letters to pen-pals at another school, homework.....

Their writing improved throughout the year. Summer vacation arrives and I'm wondering how I can keep my son writing and having fun at the same time. 

Why not start a letter writing club with his friends and classmates?

We got some paper, some pencils and sent out an email to his class. The parents thought it was a great idea. The teacher gave the kids her address to write her over the summer. And she WILL write back. We looked up a few famous folks to write to, like director George Lucas (my son, Luke is a huge Star Wars fan) and President Obama. 

The first meeting was about an hour long, even though the writing lasted for a good 40 minutes. Everyone got at least one letter done.

We took an oath: "I promise to write back anyone who writes me!"

We have our next "meeting" this coming Friday morning. Different kids will probably join us for this one. The great thing is that you don't have to be present to be in the club. You just have to write someone and keep track of it.

I've printed out cute membership cards for the group and two pieces of personalized stationary too. I hope the writing letter bug will continue to "bite" for the whole summer. I'll keep you posted!

AnneZ

Mom of a 7 1/2 year old on Summer Vacation

http://annezontheweb.com