Natasha, our Chief Mudder brought you a lovely project to entertain your young explorers during the lockdown.
Your children can become pen pals to the residents of a care home in your area and send letters, drawings and poems to them. With plenty of time to fill while the schools are closed, and with visitors unable to attend care homes, these little notes can put a smile on the faces of elderly residents.
Since we went ‘back to school’ last week I have been slightly tearing out my hair as I try and persuade my children to get through all the work they are set each day. So when I write this blog post I am aware that for so many families the idea of making your children do another thing feels a bit unbearable. Having said that it has also felt strange that as a family we are very cut off from this enormous global crisis that the world is going through and I have wanted to find a way for us to take action which is manageable and can make a very small difference.
I was then sent the suggestion for a lovely project that I did manage to persuade my children to take in part in which I wanted to share with you in case you wanted to try it too. We were asked to get in touch with a local care home and ask them if any of their residents who are so vulnerable and currently cut off from the world would like to receive a letter from a child. As a suggestion, it seemed to fit the bill perfectly. So we took the plunge and got in touch with a local care home who responded immediately saying that there were lots of residents who would love that. We then received names of three residents in particular who the care home felt would particularly appreciate a young pen pal.
My children are currently 7, 10 and 12 and they each sat down and made their own cards and letters which I loved reading as it expressed their characters so well and we have sent them off. There was quite a funny bit in the letter from my youngest where he said ’so at the moment I have to do my school work at our kitchen table with my Mum which you can imagine is not much fun’. And I liked the piece in my middle son’s letter (a chap who really is old before his time) where he signed off ‘your friend and Covid correspondent’. Then my daughter turned hers into a pop-up card masterpiece which I was very impressed by.
Our aim is to write about once a fortnight and it took about 30 mins to an hour to complete so it was a manageable task. If this appeals to you then please do take part in the initiative and spread the word to your own community of harassed parents and their children! In the meantime stay safe and try to stay sane… Natasha, Chief Mudder