Show Your Child Appreciation with a Personal Letter

Dear TMSA Parents and Guardians,

You and your scholar have endured a unique and challenging past 12 months. I was especially reminded of this from a Facebook post I read recently and from talking to my own children. While our children have endured a pandemic and sheltered in place for months, they have done so without any sort of map or playbook to guide them. They are creating and navigating a new historical landscape they will get to discuss with their grandchildren. Additionally, they are facing and living through events—social injustice, social media saturation/dominance, and 24-hour access to all kinds of information—that we as adults have only read about, at best.  Essentially, our children have observed, overheard, and participated in so many experiences that are foreign to most adults.

For all those reasons, our children deserve our appreciation, congratulations, pride, and gratitude. They Talk to your child and learn how they feel and understand what keeps them awake at night. Explore the young person you love to hug and shower with kisses and praise.  Allow open dialogue in your home to foster effective communication and connections with your child.  

I encourage you to write your child a letter (yes, I said write a letter) to explain your love and pride in who your child is. A letter affords your child the opportunity to come back to it later and be reminded of what you think of him/her. In your letter, remind your child of your observations of him/her including: 

• The specific attributes you love about him/her
• How amazing, flexible and resilient your child has been during this unforeseen pandemic
• Encourage your child to embrace how they feel about their academic progress and the challenges they have faced
• Reassure your child of your unending support to them
• Schedule time to spend nonacademic/down time with your child just listening to them and make it a recurring practice