More Letters to Soldiers

Josie didn't know what to say, so I told her it was okay to write that. Most of us struggle with what to say to other people, but this is especially hard for her since lack of conversational skills is pretty much the hallmark of Asperger's Syndrome. She still writes awfully cute letters.

Once again, my boy is astounding me with his handwriting. It's so important for him to be closely supervised. When I am not around to check him, he will just wander off or make a mess of his work, but when I am there attending to him, he really excels.

Today's Letters

Here is Josie's letter with her drawing of a manta ray on the back. Jake wrote a beautiful one too. His handwriting is so much better, but I put it in the box to send before I realized I hadn't taken a picture.

Letters to Sailors

I had the kids dictate their letters to me, then I wrote them out and they copied them with their best penmanship. I love what Jake wrote here.

I thought this was a pretty good likeness of Jake, don't you? See the circles around his eyes due to allergies? The messy hair due to homeschooling? The sword and the shield he uses to defeat laundry monsters? (I'll have to tell you about laundry monsters later.)

Josie's handwriting was beautiful. At the bottom she drew some whales.

This is such a great way to teach my kids letter writing, improve their penmanship, teach them compassion, and maybe give a soldier or sailor a little laugh. If you want to do this with your kids, go to www.anysoldier.com and pick somebody from the list. Put a stamp on your letter just like you would if you were sending domestic mail.

Cute Letter to a Soldier

My little boy spent some good time on this letter. He tells where he's from and a little about himself. He took special care to separate his words so that they could be read. I love the picture he drew to go along with the letter. It's a "find silly things" drawing. The tree has lost a tooth. Has a soldier flying out of it, a "firefly" buzzing around it, and a superhero acorn with a cape and "zippy lines" trailing behind it as it flies from the tree. There is some gum, a tennis ball, and an airplane in the tree too.

A soldier on the other side of the world will read this letter from my kid.

Some Art for Soldiers

This is a butterfly Josie made for our soldier in Afganistan. She made it so he can hang it from the ceiling. He's a paratrooper, and we're calling him Paratrooper Neil so we can remember him. I told the kids that he jumps out of planes. He sent us a letter and told us he would send along a photo of the guys in his unit.


Were going to send this one to Paratrooper Neil as well. It's a little poem from Jake. We are getting excited about spring coming and thought they would like to see a little spring too. There's a bird in that knothole in the tree.

Here's a tree for you from Tennessee,

Here's a bird to you from me.

This card is from Jake to Sgt. Tina. She took a lot of time to tell us about where she is and what she does. We took a lot of time to make this card for her. It was a collaboration between Jake and me. He needs a lot of extra help and attention when it comes to crafts. He wanted to be sure that Sgt. Tina knew he cared after I explained to them how important our letters are and told them about "morale", and what it means to have high morale. He made the purple rose, and all the little leaves. He put the wings on the bee, and drew the ladybug. He made sure that the green field had blades of grass and he put one of the flowers in there. I did all of the cutting and glue-ing.


This is my favorite. I love Josie's little pop-up cards. We're going to send this one to Sgt. Tina. There's a beehive, two trees and a skunk. Josie likes skunks and feels sorry for them because she thinks other people don't like them very much. She also thought Sgt. Tina would like to see some water. Tina wrote us and told us that the Iraqis think that birds bring good fortune, so she included lots of birds.

Tonight I'll go out and get the proper sized envelopes. Tomorrow we'll make cards for some "any soldiers" and send them along to the same locations.

I love doing this.

Anybody else out there who wants to send letters and supplies, here's the link to anysoldier.com.

Letters to Any Soldier

These are the things we sent yesterday. The soldiers like getting drawings and handwritten letters and I figured the kids would really enjoy this project. I wrote a little page of rules for writing letters to soldiers -giving them ideas on what to say and what not to say. On Monday we sent some drawings and Josie made a little card that has little flowers with smiley faces that pop-up when it's opened. I sent a lot of hygeine products to one unit that had only a few women and were suffering from a lack of these necessary things. It also gave me a chance to explain to Josie what they were for, which, not surprisingly, she took in stride. To another unit we sent a bunch of snacks and candy and fitness magazines. Next time we do this, I'll have the customs forms filled out before we get in line at the post office. It was a feel-good project we will do again.

Today's Project

Today I am going to get two addresses from anysoldier.com for lessons in following directions, writing, math, and social studies.

1.We'll find out what items our soldiers need and want, go to the store and get boxes for mailing.

2.For math, we'll estimate how many items we can fit in that box, then we'll add up the weights of the items with a calculator to come up with how many ounces we have, divide by 16 to get lbs, and go online to print postage.

3.For writing, the kids will think up some nice things to say to their soldier and do a little art.

4. For a bit of logic, we may do a little study in understanding by helping them figure out why our soldier may want particular items like baby wipes, foot powder, or water flavoring packets.

5. For some geography and social studies, we'll locate on a map the country in which our soldier is stationed, then later today when they are doing other things I will try to find out about the positive things that are being done by our military and civilians in that area, and at dinner tell the kids what I've learned.

Update: Can't print the postage online. Have to fill out a customs form at the post office. This little project is taking us all day. I'm not complaining though, there are worse things than standing in line at post offices and filling out forms.