About three weeks ago I had Julia write a letter to my good friend's (Midori) six year old daughter, Miori. Midori was an exchange student from Japan that came to live with us one summer when she was about 15 and I was 12 or 13. We were the best of friends, and have managed to keep in touch off and on despite the distance. It was a wonderful treat to have her at our wedding.
Anyway, I didn't know if Miori was learning English or not, but I kind of figured that it was something her mom would like (I have never met her father) and that regardless if Miori was capable of reading or even writing her own letter in English her mother could do the translation for her. So Julia sent off her shortish, but cute kid letter to Miori asking her about things like her favorite color. If she had any pets, etc. Julia has been waiting and hoping ever since for a response and today when we got the mail there was a cute, bunny-papered letter address to Julia all the way from Japan! She was beyond excited! We carefully opened it with a letter opener and found not only Miori's letter, but 3 origami shapes, flattened of course (a small box with a couple of tiny trinkets in it, a rose, and a crane) Julia loved them and I could tell how hard Miori worked on them. The small pink crane had been folded and folded many times like she had really worked hard at it. I was AMAZED at Miori's writing!!! Julia read the letter herself with very little help from me. On the back Midori wrote a quick note to me telling me that it was the very first English writing Miori had ever done and that she had worked so hard at it and that it was hard for her to do (hard for any of us to do that!). So after the first four lines Midori wrote Miori's dictation and then Miori went back over each letter with the pencil (and I probably would not have figured that this was the case if she had not told me.....her writing was so, so good!)
After Julia finished reading it she said with great big eyes and much excitement, "Let's go write her another letter right now!" I said, "Maybe we should fine some cute paper to use this time and maybe we can think of some cute little trinkets to include." Julia said, "Great idea! Karley, you go look for trinkets. Mommy, you go look for cute paper. I'm going to go write Miori a new letter....."
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