Writing Friendly Letters

Early in the school year P’s class did a unit on writing friendly letters. He hasn’t stopped writing letters since. It turns out when he has free time at the end of writing class he writes letters. Some of them are charming, “Dear Mom, I love you. Love Paolo”, but most of them are of the  “Dear Friend (insert name here), I like Pokemon. Do you like Pokemon?” variety or letters to Packer players. He wrote a lot of (unsent) letters to Clay Mathews and Aaron Rodgers this year.

I love reading every single, haphazardly folded letter that I discover in the depths of his backpack.  Last week he came home with a letter written to his newborn cousin, Sebastian. It was such a thoughtful letter, it overwhelmed me and I had to sit down. I’m starting to think that one day he’ll be known far and wide for his entertaining (and sometimes thoughtful) friendly letters. I’d encourage him to write more letters at home, but that’s the surest way to make sure he won’t do it. So for now I’ll collect the ones that make it home stuffed in his pockets or the bottom of his bag. Maybe one day you’ll read them all in his Collected Letters of Paolo (published by someone other than his mother).