When my daughter Marie’s children were young, I wanted to stay connected between visits. We only saw each other a couple of times a year, and I wanted more than that. While working on a presentation about the Spark Station, the idea came to me: why not write Spark Station Letters?
The idea was simple. I would write letters to my grandchildren sharing something that interested me — a word, a historical figure, a current event, a family story. Something that might spark a conversation in their home and keep us woven into each other’s lives.
It worked beautifully. Marie told me the kids were all ears when she read the letters aloud. They’d re-read them on car trips. She saved each one in a separate book for each child. She also mentioned that I was frequently sharing values and teaching life lessons — which I hadn’t even realized I was doing.
A Spark Station Letter doesn’t require much. Pick a topic that genuinely interests you, tie it to the child’s life when you can, share what it means to you personally, and write to the child’s age and interests. A letter to a five-year-old might be half a page. A letter to a teenager can go longer. Research if you need to — I usually limited myself to fifteen or thirty minutes of preparation. The letters don’t have to be long. They have to be real.
Here’s a sampling of letters I sent over the years. They show the range of topics, the values woven in, and how personal a letter can feel — even across the miles.
What Is an Onomatopoeia?
To Lizzy, age 5 – My twenty-year-old, Kate, had introduced me to the word during a conversation in the kitchen. We had fun coming up with examples, and I thought Lizzy would love it too.
Dear Lizzy,
Do you like words? Well, I do. I like knowing what words mean and how to spell them. You are just learning to write and spell, and I am excited for you because reading and writing are so fun.
I learned a new word recently. Your Aunt Kate told me about it. It was onomatopoeia. Whew, that is a big word! It is pronounced on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh. An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it describes. The buzz of a bee — isn’t that the sound they actually make! The hiss of a snake. The tinkle of a bell. Or the sound of a chickadee — that is actually what they say, chickadee. Funny, huh! You and your sisters can come up with some more.
Words are fun, and I hope that you will let me know all the onomatopoeias you can find. Keep reading. Keep writing. And for goodness ‘ sake, write to me!
Love, Grandma
Two months after I sent that letter, twenty-year-old Kate went to visit Marie. When she arrived, five-year-old Lizzy announced, “I know what onomatopoeia means!” and gave examples. The seven-year-old proudly added, “But I know how to spell it!” That’s what a Spark Station Letter can do.
Proverbs and Genealogy
To Ashley, age 10 – I was taking a family history class and had just found eighteen relatives at the Salt Lake City genealogy library. I wanted to share that excitement — and teach something along the way.
Dear Ashley,
I’ve been taking a fun class called Family History. It’s all about finding your old grandmas and grandpas, uncles and aunts, and people like that. After two classes, I went to the big genealogy library in Salt Lake City and found eighteen relatives. When I got home, grandpa and I found another one.
I was thinking about my grandma today. She would be your great, great-grandma. Her name was Rozelia Wolfley Cazier. She used to say, “A stitch in time saves nine.” Do you know what that means? When I was your age, I couldn’t figure it out. Now I know that if something is torn and you fix it right away, it takes fewer stitches than if you wait until the hole gets bigger.
This is called a proverb. There is a whole book in the Bible called Proverbs, and there are many sayings like this one in it. A proverb is an old, familiar saying handed down over many years. When you hear a proverb, it is a bit like hearing advice from an ancestor.
Here is a proverbs game for you. See if you can figure out what these mean, then send me what you think:
1. The grass is always greener on the other side.
2. Haste makes waste.
3. If the shoe fits, wear it.
4. A fool and his money are soon parted.
I hope you share these with your family and work together to figure them out. Ask your mom if there are any proverbs your family always says. I always say, “Better late than never.” My grandpa always said, “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face” — he’d say it when I was mad at someone and wanted to get back at them. It means don’t take an action in anger that will hurt you more than the person you’re mad at.
I love you to the moon and back.
Love, Grandma
The US Census
To Aubrey, age 10 – One year, I helped gather the census in Utah. It was a topic worth sharing.
Dear Aubrey,
I am working a few hours a day for the US Census to help pay for Aunt Kate’s wedding.
The census has been taken every ten years since 1790. The word for “every ten years” is decennial. The Constitution requires a population count so Congress can decide how many representatives each state gets. Some states have more than others because more people live there. That helps people have an equal say in government. Utah could have had another representative in Congress if it had just 800 more people counted ten years ago. The census matters!
Now, the census office is open all the time and costs a lot of money, which bugs some people. And some people don’t want to answer all the questions because they don’t trust the government. All the houses I went to were willing to give me the information, except one. Even though he didn’t trust the government and wouldn’t answer my questions, he was very nice about it.
The census information is also used in genealogy. You can look at old census records and find your relatives that way. The information I am collecting this year won’t be made public for 72 years, so I will never be able to use it for genealogy, and you will have to live to be 82 to use it!
I love you and hope school is going well.
Love, Grandma
Slavery and Freedom
To Lizzy, age 8 – Kate had to read a book for school about a slave girl in America. I read it too and wrote to Lizzy about it — connecting it to a local caucus night I had just attended for the first time.
Hi Lizzy,
Kate had to read a book for school about a slave girl in America, and I read it too. It was a very sad book. It is a terrible thing when families are broken up and people have their agency taken away. Sometimes I forget what a gift it is to be able to choose where to live, what work to do, where to travel, and whether to get married and have a family. Slaves couldn’t do any of those things. If people didn’t like you and wanted to treat you badly, they could, and you couldn’t do anything about it. One of the worst things was that you couldn’t protect your children. If the master wanted to sell your babies away, he could, and many times they did.
The girl I read about hid in a crawl space for over seven years just to be free. There was no heat in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, and she could never stand up. Wow. She really wanted to be free.
That is why it is so important to vote. Last Tuesday was Caucus night. I had never attended a caucus before, but I went this year. People said they saw more people there than they had in many years — they were worried about their freedoms. When you are old enough, be sure to register and never miss an election. So many people have been willing to fight and die for that freedom.
Love, Grandma
Cherokee Indians
To Ashley, age 11 – There is an old story in our family about a great, great, great-grandfather who married a Cherokee princess. No record of it exists — just a family legend. But it gave me a wonderful reason to write.
Dear Ashley,
I’ve been doing genealogy, and there is an old story in our family about someone who married an Indian princess from the Cherokee Nation. There is no record of it, just a family legend — but I think it would be wonderful if it were true.
The Cherokee were farmers and hunters who lived in the mountains of the southeast United States. They were called one of the “Five Civilized Tribes” because they had adopted so many of the settlers’ ways. They had developed a written language, a government, and a newspaper. They helped fight in the War of 1812 and had the Bible translated into their language.
None of that mattered to the government, which said they had to give up their lands and move to Arkansas. Many fought against it. Then there was a gold rush in Georgia — the first gold rush in the United States — and the settlers were determined to have those lands. President Martin Van Buren ordered the militia to drive the people out. The exodus of over 800 miles is called “The Trail of Tears” because it was so terrible. Over 4,000 people died.
Doesn’t that remind you of the Mormon Pioneers, expelled from Nauvoo in the middle of winter and made to march so far in the snow? They too had to give up all their lands. But they held on.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the legend were true, and we carried some Cherokee blood?
Love, Grandma
(P.S. to my readers — Several years ago, I did DNA testing. No Native American bloodlines. The story was truly a legend. Sad.)
Nelson Mandela
To Kane, age 13- Kane had recently discovered how wonderful reading was, and I wanted to share something big with him.
Dear Kane,
Last night, grandpa and I went to see a movie called “Invictus.” I hope you will see it. I think when we come face to face with greatness, we become greater ourselves.
When I was fourteen, there was much trouble in South Africa, and Mandela was sent to prison. I heard about it but didn’t think much of it. Since then, I have heard about him over and over. He spent 27 years in prison and was released in 1990 — before you were even born.
Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist. Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation in South Africa that gave minority white rule and curtailed the rights of the majority Black population. Education, medical care, and public services were all segregated. There was a great deal of unrest and violence. It was frightening even to read about as a girl.
After 27 years in prison, you might think Mandela would want revenge. He didn’t. Like George Washington, he wanted his country to have peace — to become strong and united. He put away his own grief and loss and worked toward that. He used rugby to bring about an extraordinary change. I don’t want to spoil the movie; it was so good.
Victor Frankl was a Jewish doctor who survived a concentration camp and wrote a book called “Man’s Search for Meaning.” One of the most powerful ideas I have ever embraced came from that book: no one can take away how you choose to respond. They can take everything else — your food, your home, your dignity, your freedom — but they cannot take that. That is what Mandela did. They had taken everything from him. But when all was said and done, he chose how to act.
Email and tell me what you are reading.
Love, Grandma
A Commonplace Book
To Kane, age 14 – Kane had been reading voraciously, and I wanted to share my own love of learning — and teach him a tool for remembering what he read.
Dear Kane,
Do you know who George Wythe was? He signed the Declaration of Independence and was America’s first law professor. But his greatest legacy was mentoring: two presidents, two Supreme Court justices, over twenty senators, governors, and judges. One of his students was Thomas Jefferson.
How did he do it? He asked Jefferson what he wanted to learn, helped him build a course of study, and then had him read, write, and discuss. Jefferson taught himself — with a mentor and the great books — and became one of the most educated men in American history. When President Kennedy hosted a group of Nobel Prize winners, he said, “This is the most extraordinary collection of talent and human knowledge ever gathered at the White House — with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” I love that quote.
Jefferson kept what he called a Commonplace Book — a journal of what he studied and learned each day. I was thinking about the wonderful books you’ve been reading and thought you might like to keep one, too. Write a bit about what you read, and your thoughts about it. This practice helps you really learn and remember.
I have two mentors myself — one helps me think more deeply, the other helps me stay on track with major projects. They both assign me books to read. I’m reading about six books at once right now. When I complained to one of them that I wasn’t getting enough out of my reading, she said flatly, “It’s because you aren’t doing any work to remember. You just read.” She was right. Now I keep a Commonplace Book of my own — and I am learning and remembering so much more.
Let me know how you like the books I sent you. I’d especially like your thoughts on The Giver.
Love, Grandma
These letters span several years and different ages, simple topics and complex ones, silly words and serious history. What they share is this: they kept me in front of my grandchildren and them in front of me. They passed on values I didn’t even realize I was teaching. They sparked conversations in homes I couldn’t be present in.
You don’t have to be a grandparent to write a Spark Station Letter. Any adult who loves a child — an aunt, an uncle, a family friend, a mentor — can use them. All it takes is something that interests you and a child you want to stay connected to.
Get connected. Share your Sparks.
P.S. for my readers – So you know, most of these letters have been shortened. Several were quite a bit longer, but I need to make the article readable. : )
