Letter writing

Last week was report cards at school. Austin did very well -- and his teacher's only comment was that he needs to continue working on his writing.

So I've taken that comment seriously (not that I would take it any other way) and started to encourage him to work on his writing. But I quickly realized that to a five-year-old boy, sitting down and 'writing' isn't all that much fun.

So, on the fly, I came up with a game to make it more interesting. And it's working. It might take him a while to write something but at least he's doing it.

What's he doing? He's writing letters. Practice I guess for that letter to Santa we should really write soon. Last week, when I suggested he write a letter to someone, he immediately decided he would write a letter to Grandpa.

And so he did. He wrote: To Grandpa, I do not have school tomorrow. Love Austin.

(It was a PA day the day after he wrote it.)

And we mailed it to grandpa -- who was thrilled to get a letter from his grandson.

He's working on another letter right now, this time telling another family member that he baked cookies today. The process of writing just those few words takes him about 30 minutes -- but the point is is that he's doing it.

So all you family members out there who read my blog. Keep checking your mailbox -- you never know when you'll get a letter from Austin.