Welcome to Pen Pal School! The space for creative kids to learn more about letter writing and discover the JOY of snail mail!
Pen Pal school has EVERYTHING you need to get started with letter writing, including a stationery set AND a pen pal to write to.
It can be challenging to find a reliable pen pal for your child, so we are making it easy! No more giving your address out to strangers, long response times, or no response from pen pals.
Inspired by our Olivia’s Pen Pal story postcard, I decided to try a kids pen pal exchange between preschoolers and the results were so fun!
Since we are still at an early writing stage, I wanted to keep things fun and simple so I created this pen pal letter template (available as a free bonus download for our subscriber community along with February’s bonus materials – so exciting!) so that we could write a letter to a friend.
So far, our pen pal exchange is exceeding my expectations, and has led to all kinds of playful learning and exploration. We have learned:
How to look places up on a map
Letter and word practice
How to address and letter (subscribers will find a video tutorial for kids in our bonus online membership materials for this month’s theme as well!)
Scissor practice (to cut out a photo)
and so much more!
Story postcard subscriptions from Petit Mail make it so easy to explore the pen pal experience. For just $10 a month* you create the opportunity to bring so much learning and fun into your home! Every month, you will find:
a bright fun envelope addressed to your child, arriving in your mailbox.
a colourful, illustrated story from Oliver, Audrey, Milo and Olivia sharing about art, science, creativity, nature and imagination.
the opportunity to cuddle up and read together and be inspired by new ideas.
bonus surprise items like stickers and bookmarks.
activity ideas, tutorials and videos available to subscribers online in the monthly BONUS link (included with your envelope).
the chance to be present and spend quality time with your child.
*for a 1 year subscription
If you love the idea of a snail mail subscription for the preschooler or early reader in your life, you can try your first story in Canada or the US for just $10 (postage included)
Alison shares more about the benefits of a preschool pen pal.
More About Our Preschool Pen Pal Exchange
To make the experience a little more educational, I added a hand-written note from me, telling a little bit more about our family, where we live, and the things we enjoy doing together. Given that it is still WINTER, one of our letters got a little wet when it arrived in its destination mailbox, and our package turned into a little bit of a rainbow, but that’s ok, we are embracing the wild color combination!
NJ was so excited to read something from another little girl her own age. We looked up Michigan on a map, and compared it to where we live in Newfoundland and Labrador.
One of our pen pals, Madelyn, wondered about what it’s like to live near the ocean (quick answer: our ocean is COLD and often stormy, but it’s still oh-so-beautiful) so our project for our next pen pal letter will be to find a nice day and to take some pictures (if we are REALLY lucky, we’ll find a day to get our picture taken with an iceberg in the background as it’s almost iceberg season when pieces of ice start to break off in the Arctic and float their way South). Maybe we will also share some fun facts about animals that we find here, like Puffins and Whales.
Overall, I loved this project and can’t wait to write more pen pal letters!
Pen Pal Tips For Young Children
If you are exchanging a letter with a child or family you don’t know very well, add your own notes to their letter. Share more about where you live, your family and how your family enjoys spending time together. This really helps to spark their interest in the overall experience.
Add stickers to your letter! Stickers are always a HUGE HIT, in fact, both of our letters were covered with stickers from top to bottom!
Not sure who to write to? Send your letter to a family member or friend with a child around the same age. Or, send mail to a relative of any age and encourage them to write back.
