Over the summer I wanted to think of a way to encourage Adam to work on his writing, but also have it be something fun for him. So we made a list of different people that he could send fan mail, and he got to work.
We tried to do one letter a week, and called it “Write it Wednesday” (it rarely actually happened on Wednesdays, but I like alliteration). In addition to the letters, he sent each recipient a photo of himself (so they would know what he looked like), and either a picture he drew or colored.
First up was Harrison Ford, Mr. Han Solo himself.
Next was children’s author, and professional soccer player, Frank Lampard.
Then Adam went on a “Cutthroat Kitchen” kick. It was his favorite show for a while and so he wrote to Alton Brown, and offered to help him host the show (but said since he’s a picky eater, he wouldn’t want to try the food). He made me sign a permission slip to include with the letter – so that Mr. Brown would know I was okay with it too.
He also wrote to his favorite judge on the show, Simon Majumdar.
Adam also wrote to one of the keepers at our zoo about the arrival of their new hippos.
He sent a letter to Dav Pilkey, the author of his favorite series, “Captain Underpants.”
And to LeBron James, congratulating him on his team’s championship win.
Here’s another, to Mickey Mouse.
Adam got his first two responses on the same day. One was from Dav Pilkey’s publisher. They sent him a nice note saying they were forwarding his letter on to the author and included a fun newsletter and a little activity book for his new series. The second was from Keeper Jenna at the zoo. She answered all of Adam’s questions and said we should try to find her the next time we visited the zoo.
After he lost his first tooth, Adam wrote to Abby Klein. The Tooth Fairy had brought him one of her books (about a little boy losing his first tooth).
Adam got a postcard back from Mickey and his friends.
And we did find Keeper Jenna at the zoo. That was a lot of fun for Adam.
He also heard back from Abby Klein, and I’m sure more responses will trickle in. He has more people on the list that he wants to send letters to, so I think we’ll start it up again once soccer ends.
It’s a lot of fun for both of us. I love seeing his thought process as he decides who to write and what to tell them. My favorite part though, is his tagline. He ends each letter with, “If you want to write back, I will write back on a Wednesday.”
