Fairy letters, sunflowers seeds and pen pal fatigue

 

My daughter writes to the fairies.  They live at the bottom of the garden and magically, when she pens them a note and leaves it under her pillow, a reply is left in its place.

Don't look at me like that.  There is nothing wrong with having mythical creatures as pen pals.  It's excellent reading and writing practice, plus with their plant-based nomenclature, rather a good way of increasing horticultural knowledge.

The only problem is, Ava is a very dedicated correspondent and the fairies are having problems keeping up.  Cherry Blossom works very hard, and quite frankly, she sometimes likes to spend her evenings watching episodes of Entourage and enjoying something chilled rather than writing reams of letters.  And Brambles is no help at all - he spends all his time at Amateur Dramatics or leafing though his vinyl collection.

The other day Ava was becoming quite distressed because the fairies hadn't written for three whole nights.  Fast thinking was called for, so I explained that, at this time of year, fairies are probably busy collecting in their harvest of seeds and nuts, ready for the long winter.

Last night there was another note.  With apologies for the spelling errors, it read:

"To Cherry Blosom

Do you have a best frend?  I have a best freind and she is called Darcy. Pleaes writ again soon love Ava

P.s. In the uver envelope are some seeds"

So now I have slightly less sunflower seeds for the birds, and Cherry Blossom has run out of excuses.

Comments

[Lia Leendertz]

We had a very artistic lodger who used to do this, and sent me beautifully illustrated letters from fairies. It was magical, and i was totally convinced. i seem to remember a trick with icing sugar and (presumably doll)footprints. You could do the same with mud? just to get her further hooked...

[sam]

my dad used to do something similar but with father christmas!

[Dawn]

Lia - don't give me any more ideas! This thing could get out of hand

Sam - parents are so devious...

[Deb]

We, or rather I, always use really fine glitter as fairy dust. Actually, there's a wonderful shop here that sells tiny bottles containing such "fairy dust" (even labelled with a cork for a stopper). Sigh.

Would You like me to send you some?
PS. Santa also leaves special dust on the front lawn after the reindeer have had their special food and glittery footprints around the fire place.
PPS. Am assuming your daughter can't read this but if she can spell 'envelope' perhaps I'm wrong...!

[Avis]

Love it! Hope you're saving these sweet, innocent notes to comfort you when your daughter's a rebellious teen ;-)

[Dawn/LittleGreenFingers]

Deb - having seen the fairy houses on your blog, I had a feeling you might be a professional! Would love some fairy dust - I'll drop you an email.

Avis - I'm too paranoid about her finding them!

[myla]

This post made my whole day.

[elizabethm]

Just found your blog. Love the pumpkin and your daughter's helpful response!

[Joanne Roach]

Tee hee.
My son recently lost another tooth and put it under his pillow as normal. Unfortunately the tooth fairy did not arrive. We explained that the tooth fairy had perhaps gone to our house and not been able to find us. We are living in a tent in the field next door while we have extensive and messy building work done. So maybe she couldn't find us. Or just fell asleep after a long day organising builders. One of the two. So perhaps she would come the next night, if she knew where we were. Oh man I felt bad for the tooth fairy and her lack of commitment.
The kids took this setback pretty well. They made a little box to stick to my son's bed, wrote a card each to her to put in, along with some GoGo toys and MatchAttax cards they wanted to give her for her trouble, a raspberry from the garden (because it's yummy) and a note asking if she uses the teeth to build castles. My daughter hit on the idea that she should wind up her tinkerbell music box so the tooth fairy could listen to the fairy music. They then made directions to put on the old house directing her to the tent.

So instead of a simple pound coin, the tooth fairy now had to write a long note in tiny script, thanking them for their cards and gifts and explaining that the GoGos were too heavy to carry and perhaps they should keep them for her to play with next time she visited. Plus eating the raspberry and writing a note about how yummy it was. Explaining that what happens to the teeth is a secret but that the castles are all made from marshmallows. And playing the music box (at the other side of the field, it is surprisingly loud) until it had totally run down and thanking them for the lovely music to dance to, how nearly she woke up Mom and Dad with the music.
It took quite a long time for the tooth fairy to do this.
I think next time the tooth fairy will manage to arrive first time. Even if it involves using some kind of alarm with a reminder on it.

[Wendy]

This is so sweet...

My daughter believed in Santa due to many stories and little traditions. I think she FINALLY found out around...age...9 or so that he's not "real". I was starting to feel really bad because she was getting older and older and was almost to the point where it was getting silly and I felt like I was lying to her. Anyway, after a VERY rough winter season when she finally realized the truth, she came to grips with it and I realize that she's probably a more spiritual, imaginative, hopeful, child because of it.

Anyway, cute seeds and note!!! :)

[Dawn/LittleGreenFingers]

Myla - I think that's the ultimate compliment - thank you so much

Joanne - miss it again and I think you may have to create a scale model fairy castle out of marshmallows - do NOT forget the alarm

Wendy - It is difficult to know what age it's better to know than believe. I mean when does cute become certifiable? I'm guessing around 31....

[twitter.com/Casa_Martin]

First, let me say that this made me sooo happy and giggle. Such a great idea and concept with perfect incentive to practice writing/spelling skills, but I totally get the 'Fairy's' inability to keep up. lol How did you start this with her? And CAN I PLEEEEASE borrow the idea? My gardening daughter is only 4 but I can't wait.
Thank you for sharing!
~Fellow Gardener and Mommy

[Dawn/LittleGreenFingers]

Hi FGAM - Thanks for visiting (and the retweet) and please, borrow away! The idea was started by our babysitter - a delightful 17-year-old who kept the letters sent to her by the fairies when she was a little girl. Ava was entranced but didn't start writing until she was given a fairy writing set by a family friend for her birthday.

[Kate (Berkeley, California)]

My 7 year old daughter has been writing to the fairy too, for the past month (she too received "The World's smallest postal service" as a present). The local fairy is definitely in the mid-stage of pen pal fatigue, though of course also utterly charmed. It was a good thing to find this posting by happenstance on an internet search about fairy letters. To know that others have trod this path before!