Write down exactly what they say
The dictation line is the part worth taking seriously. Write the child's words as spoken, including the odd grammar and the thing that makes no sense. A tidied-up version loses everything that makes it worth keeping, and the untidy version is the one people read out at family gatherings fifteen years later.
Keep it short. One sentence of what they want and one of anything else they said is plenty, and more than that turns into an adult writing a letter.
The drawing box
Large, with a thin frame and nothing inside it. Children draw what they want, which is often more specific than anything they could say: a particular colour, a particular size, a thing they saw in a shop. It is genuinely useful information for whoever is buying.
If a child is reluctant to draw, ask them to draw themselves receiving the thing rather than the thing itself. It usually unsticks them.
Three wide lines
Twelve millimetre spacing, which is about twice a standard school rule. It is enough for a child to attempt their own name and maybe one word, which most four year olds want to do even when an adult is writing the rest. Leaving the lines blank is fine too.
Questions
- What age is the picture letter for?
- Roughly three to five, children who cannot yet write a sentence but can draw what they want and say it out loud.
- Should I correct the child wording on the dictation line?
- No. Write what they actually said, odd grammar and all. The tidied version loses the part that makes the letter worth keeping.
- How wide are the writing lines?
- Twelve millimetres, about double a standard school rule, which gives a young child room to attempt their own name and a word or two.
- What if the child does not want to draw?
- Ask them to draw themselves with the thing they want rather than the thing on its own. It gives them a starting point and usually gets the pencil moving.