Looking for a way to kick off writing this year that adds little (or nothing!) to your prep time?
How about borrowing one of our favorite back-to-school writing activities and write a letter to the FUTURE.
Start out with “Dear Future Me” and encourage your children to share hopes, dreams, and questions with their future self.
Then, seal it in an envelope to be opened May 2025.
Letter To the Future Pros:
1. The date is important! Be sure to have them put September ___, 2024 date on the top line and “Dear Future Me,” on the second line. (If you’d love to do more with your kids on letter writing format and content, remember, there is the You’ve Got Mail Writer’s Box.)
2. Sharing sentence starters can be a big help to get their letters going. Here are a few that we’ve used with young writers:
- Right now, I am thinking lots about . . .
- This year I hope that . . .
- I can’t believe . . .
- I wonder if . . .
- Did you ever . . .
- I want you to remember . . .
3. The audience for this is, obviously, their future selves, so don’t worry about spelling. Hopefully, this year they will make lots of progress and get a satisfied chuckle out of reading the way they “used to” spell.
4. You can stop here and it will be awesome. If you want more, you may have fun putting the letters in a box and encouraging your children to collect family “time capsule” materials. Here are a few ideas:
- A picture they draw or paint.
- Traced handprints to compare how they’ve grown.
- A wrapper from the current favorite snack in your pantry.
- A dried leaf or flower from the backyard.
- A string bracelet leftover from summer.
When you’re done, put the letters (and possibly the box!) somewhere out of the way, but not so out of the way you forget about it! (It’s actually fun to forget about it a little bit though because then when you open it up in May, it’s feels more like a surprise! We’ll set an alarm on our phones to remind you about this!)
As moms speaking to you from your someday future, trust us when we say the years fly by. Thank you for letting us be a part of the important work you are doing! We are cheering for you!
We love being on your team!
