Our family linked up with a couple of others overseas to write letters between the elementary-aged kids. As we worked through the process, all of us (parents included) got more into the activity. It turned into an impressive blend of life skills and entertainment.
Life Skills & Entertainment
As we dove into finding and writing to pen pals, the benefits kept stacking up.
- Reading & Writing
- How postage works – letters, stamps, addresses
- Art, creativity – they don’t have to just send text
- Thoughtfulness – you have to give to receive
- Social-Emotional
- Relationship Building
- Geography – we used an atlas to map out pen pals
- Culture – across the town or the globe
It started with a kid’s cry to get mail
When one of the #hocodads, John, moved to Australia, his kids were asking why they don’t get more mail. John reached out to the group for letters from other families. Without hesitation, I gathered my boys to send pen pal letters to Australia and to Japan where we have family members.
Writing letters between 3 countries
I didn’t have any lined paper so I printed a few templates from google images. They were of poor quality, some faded. We made due and packed the envelopes with anything cool and thin enough to fit – stickers, wallet-sized portraits… more stickers.
The kids skipped all the way
When John and his family got it in Australia, they were psyched! Who doesn’t enjoy getting mail? The same happened with our family over in Japan.
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Each family got a Connections Kit
After doing some research, we found these kids stationery kits: Connections Letter-Writing Kit. We reached out to them and they loved the idea. The company shipped out a kit for each of the 3 families *(US, Australia, Japan) to support our group and showcase their product.
So it was cool to get letters, but this package was a huge surprise and extra encouragement to send out letters to fill in 20 minutes of free time.
Inside each kit
- 25 sheets of stationery paper (6″ x 8.5″)
- 25 envelopes
- 36 envelope-seal stickers
- 2 color ink pads
- Thank you stamp
- Blue pen
How are your kids keeping in touch with friends/classmates?
Leave a comment below let us know what you think about making pen pals. Has anyone in your family had a pen pal recently or as a kid? Try linking up with a family in the HoCo Dads community or a classmate.
