School is almost here! How are your letters coming?

Happy Monday!

 

I would guess you didn’t think it would be so difficult to write a letter about your child.  I completely understand.  While working on my daughter’s letter this year, I had some difficulty in taking the strengths she has and turning them into positives.  I was thinking that her age (she turns 11 next week) has quite a bit to do with it. OR the Disney machine that keeps cranking out the multitude of Hannah Montana merchandise!! 

 

Allow me to explain.  My daughter is one of those kids who idolizes Hannah Montana and wants to be just like her.  (Yes just like the millions of other little girls out there!)  So she and I have been a little contentious with each other since I am of the mindset that idolizing anything that is overwhelming marketed by a large corporation isn’t good for her; and she is of the mindset that Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus is the best thing since sliced bread. 

 

Of course, she wants Hannah clothes, school supplies, back pack, underwear, etc…  And it doesn’t matter how many times I explain that just because the pencil has Hannah on, it doesn’t make it write any different and doesn’t justify the cost.  I give her an example of a regular pencil costing about 10 cents and a Hannah pencil costing about a dollar. While she can comprehend the difference and agrees that products shouldn’t be more expensive just because of the person on the pencil; she also asked me if she could get Hannah folders and just regular pencils instead. 

 

Hmmm, think that discussion missed the boat a little bit, but at least I tried.  Alas, I digress!  So, when writing the letter about her strengths, I was having some difficulty separating my annoyance with her insistence on everything Hannah.  So I had to strategize some other ideas about coming up with her strengths.  Put my emotions aside and look just at facts.  The obvious answer was to coach myself into finding them just as I do others.  If you are having difficulty, try some of these to get you going.   

 

To help get started on finding her strengths, I decided to ask some relatives to tell me something that they feel she is good at.  I got quite a bit of good info there.  It is always interesting for me to see how other people view her. 

 

Then I found a strength finder site through Penn State that had a strengths test for children over 8.  I found the test results for my daughter very interesting and close to what I was coming up with on my own.  The test can be found here:    http://www.viasurvey.org/ .    It is free to register and different from the Gallup strengths that I have taken for myself.  I wouldn’t take the results as set in stone however since our children are always changing, but I would consider it helpful for my letter writing task.    

 

Another thing I did with my daughter was ask her directly what she felt her strengths were.  I find it an interesting and insightful conversation which builds intimacy and self esteem. 

 

Lastly I developed a resume of sorts for her teachers. (With her help) In addition to the letter I find that the more a teacher knows about your child, the more he/she can connect with them if difficulties arise.  We put such things as interests, likes, dislikes, hobbies, family info, and pets.  I also include a copy of our homework routine so they can refer to it if necessary. 

 

Once the packet is complete, I will drop it off at the school before their first day.  This will allow the teacher some time to actually read it and anticipate meeting my kids.  (I hope they anticipate it anyway!)   J

 

My letter for my daughter is almost complete, and I must say once I got going, it wasn’t as difficult writing about her strengths.  And really finding them wasn’t the true issue at all, but explaining them to someone who isn’t familiar with her that was causing me trouble. The difficulty now is keeping it short so the teacher will actually read it!  So, a couple more versions and I will be done.  How’s your letter coming???

 

Enjoy the rest of your summer!