Friendly Letters in the Waldorf School Curriculum

Today our town had a Homeschool Curriculum Swap and I was so proud of myself for taking tons of things to donate and leaving with just one book!

That special book that I just had to have was The Journey by Sarah Stewart. Not only are Amish children not well-represented in children's literature -- which would be enough of a reason to get it -- it is a book written solely as a series of letters (an epistolary book). This is something I have a list of!

The Journey
by Sarah Stewart

So why am I making a list of epistolary picture (and chapter) books?

Where does this fit in the Waldorf curriculum scope & sequence?

Personal Narratives are commonly done in 4th Grade. Steiner never mentioned Friendly Letters but I like to put them in 5th Grade. Having pen pals comes in handy when you are doing U.S. Geography. Steiner was VERY big on writing Business Letters in 6th Grade. In 7th Grade, children get into Creative Writing (this is the block called Wish, Wonder, and Surprise) and in 8th Grade they tackle Persuasive Writing, Essay Writing, and Speeches.

On the Friendly Letters page on my website, I have lots of ideas for ways that you can incorporate this topic into the 5th grade year (and even thoughts about how to make an entire main lesson block out of studying stamps and the postal system). Here are the books I've gathered so far!

Booklist

Stringbean's Trip to the Shining Sea
by Vera B. Williams and Jennifer Williams
little boy writes a series of postcards home on a road trip from Kansas to see the Pacific Ocean



Thank You, Santa
by Margaret Wild
little girl from Australia becomes pen pals with Santa and knits things for the littlest reindeer



The Gardener
by Sarah Stewart
little girl goes to the city to stay with an unknown relative during the Depression, writes upbeat letters home about her attempts to garden in the grimy city and to make her grumpy uncle smile



The Journey
by Sarah Stewart
an Amish girl writes in her diary each day about her experiences visiting the city for the first time



The Quiet Place
by Sarah Stewart
little girl moves from Mexico to the U.S. and slowly adjusts to her home, nice for teaching about the Closing as you must watch carefully to see when this changes, will inspire you to build a box fort!



A Small Dog's Big Life: Around the World with Owney
by Irene Kelly
fictional mail but a true event, the extensive travels of Owney, "Mascot of the Railway Mail Service"



The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman
by Darcy Pattison
life-size wooden man hitchhikes from SC to CA as a gift from a loving uncle to his favorite niece (with specific city names like Rough and Ready, CA it is nice for inspiring a look at road maps)



Love, Mouserella
by David Ezra Stein
one very long very sweet letter (and a ketchup packet) from a little girl mouse to her grandma



Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914
by John Hendrix
this touching true story is excellent but would be better in Sixth Grade Philosophy ("Compassion")



The Mysterious Collection of Dr. David Harleyson
by Jean Cassels
not limited to letters, this puzzle-to-be-solved also includes restaurant receipts, train tickets, newspaper articles, play programmes, journal entries, business cards, telegrams, and more!

There's a great list of even more epistolary-themed picture books about pen pals and postmen in the Epistolary Picture Books That Will Make Your Child Want to Be a Pen Pal blog post by Gretchen Louise.

Of course, in the chapter book category we have

Dear Mr. Henshaw
by Beverly Cleary


Letters to Horseface: Being the Story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Journey to Italy 1769-1770 When He Was a Boy of Fourteen
by F. N. Monjo

Let me know if you find others!

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