I love the immediacy of email, but I think that it has taken away the thrill of getting something in the mailbox addressed to you. Seeing the different colored stamps, feeling the different textures of papers and cards...what fun!
When I was a kid, because my dad was military, I kept in touch with friends with letters. Yes, it took weeks to get a response, especially when those friends scattered overseas at times, but there is something exciting about seeing an envelope or card with your name on it.
So one of the things I do is bring address labels for a few of the boys' close friends. And wherever we stop, they pick out some postcards and write notes to their pals. They can reflect and share something about their day's adventures. Over the years my requirements grow. I think the first year, I let them dictate, I wrote the card, and they signed it. Then they had to write one sentence, then two.This year I told them that they had to write at least three sentences on the postcard. Dylan objected and said that he was younger than Riley and should only have to write two sentences. I was firm. Then he just wrote bigger and told me that three sentences don't fit on the postcard. Rotten kid.
Writing and reading shouldn't be luxuries, but with the mayhem of everyday life, it feels like it sometimes. Because there is not laptop beckoning with a blog to write or emails to check. I always pack at least one book for every two days we're gone. I may not get through them all; it's nice to have options.This trip, I read The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann and thumbed through several books about chocolate in preparation for my class next trimester.
And when we weren't reading and writing, we were hiking, splashing, playing hide and seek among downed timbers, making bows and arrows, singing, laughing, and enjoying lots and lots of unplugged family time!
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