About two years ago, my husband applied for a fellowship to continue his training in the field of medicine, and after several interviews in many different places, he picked a fellowship in Maryland. So, as the title suggests, we're moving out of New York, to Baltimore.
Two years ago, I was miserable with the outcome. I knew he wouldn't have much of a choice, but figured if he interviewed enough, he'd definitely be able to choose from a program in New York. However, it didn't work out that way, and two years later, we are so excited to be moving on from New York. New York, quite literally, drains the life out of you. The cost of living takes the joy out of living because everything revolves around the money! How you'll pay your rent, buy your food, fill your car, pay your tolls-I've bonded with several people over empty bank accounts. Thankfully, we're looking at an overall increase in the quality of life.
But, these transitions don't come without hardships, even though there are many positives. One of those hardships, was Moshe's hesitation with moving. He has expressed several reservations about his new apartment. He's worried it will be too small, or he won't like his room, or the kitchen will be too small. He's worried about making new friends, and leaving his best friend behind, and going to a new school. When I spoke to one of my friends about the impending difficult transition, he suggested I get Moshe a pen pal. After some back and forth with the new school, we found Moshe a suitable writing partner from his new class. It turns out his pen pal was even more excited and sent him a letter he wrote completely on his own out of pure excitement!
I knew I would need a template, since Moshe has never written a letter before. Here's the thing, many tasks that are "innate" to us, are actually innate because we were taught once upon a time. So I knew I would need to create a template for him, at least in the beginning to serve as model of how we write to a pen pal. I did some Pinterest searching, and none of the pre-made templates worked for me.
I wanted the letter to be a little more personalized for the situation. However, it did get me off on the right track. When writing a pen pal letter, it really is all about you.
Questions to include in a pen pal letter
Your birthday
Your age
Your school
Your family: siblings, where you live
Your favorites: color, food, toy, activity, movie, animal, subject, sport
Something you're good at
Something exciting that happened, or something you're looking forward to
What you want to be when you grow up
Essentially, by creating a template, you can create the perfect pen pal letter!
I just typed it up on google docs, and then printed a page boarder from www.pageboarders.org
They have tons of options, and each boarder can be personalized, which is much more exciting than buying a standard pack of paper and, it can be printed for free! #winning
I wasn't sure Dovy would be too into the letter writing, but he wants to be just like his big brother!
We chose some small trinkets to add to each envelope and mailed it out!
Moshe has continued to write to his pen pal and they will meet in person soon in our new home. Dovy's pen pal wasn't able to write back, but that didn't stop Dovy! He has taken an interest in letter writing and has decided his teacher from last year will be his new pen pal.
We mailed our next set of letters this afternoon.
I know that letter writing is a thing of the past, and communication has become much less informal. For better or worse, at least it allows for easy and quick communication. I hope that this helps teach my kids how valuable staying in touch is and how vital communication really is!
No comments
Post a Comment