Because we are made in the image of God who is a great communicator and a relational being, we also have a great capacity (and are designed) to be communicators and relational beings.

Of all the ways God—who calls himself the Word—could have chosen to create, he decided to speak the universe into existence. He has passed down history and truth through relationship with His people and through His written word, the Bible, where His story and rescue plan are revealed through His love letter to us.

We pass on Biblical worldviews to our children when we teach, nurture, and encourage these image-bearing realities in their lives.

A fun way to do this— to encourage our children to develop a great capacity to communicate and relate—  is to set up a letter writing center for them.

I came across the idea for a letter writing center in an e-course I took a couple of years ago on creating Playful Learning Spaces in your home. I immediately got to work setting one up and it has gotten (almost) daily use since its inception. (To make ours happen, I had to save left over grocery money for a few weeks and also used some from our homeschooling budget. If you are not in a place to purchase new materials a simple basket or bowl filled with letter writing supplies works just as well!)

Here is our letter writing center— tucked away in a kitchen corner (I moved this to our basement for a while but found that it gets most use when it is in sight, in an area where we spend a lot of time):

The simple phrase cut-outs say things like Hi., How are you?, and I miss you., which my preschooler glues onto her letters since she isn’t writing yet. [Read more...]