Remember the days when you would get home from school and race your brothers and sisters to the mailbox to see what treasures had been delivered that day? If you were waiting on a postcard from travelling grandparents, expecting an invitation to a friend's party or checking for greetings from distant cousins you would know the excitement of opening the mail box to find an envelope with your own name on it!
Unfortunately, as you have grown up, the exciting letters have become few and far between, and you dread the trip to the mailbox that brings bills, notices and letters for serious, boring household matters!
But your kids can still be a part of that old time excitement. With so much emphasis on technology, email, social networking, computers and tablets, it's so easy to forget about the old art of writing a letter. So why not encourage them to find a pen pal and enjoy having a paper friendship with someone. Spend time getting to know how other people live, dress, eat, go to school, play sport, use their spare time. Or find things they have in common, similar taste in music, fears and goals in life, family and friends.
And of course there are the secret learning benefits to having a pen friend. Practicing their handwriting in a relaxed setting, doing it for fun, rather than for school gives the kids an opportunity to work on their lettering, their fine motor skills, their spelling and vocabulary and refining their skills without being tested or scrutinised. When they receive their letters they can further enhance their vocabulary and practice their reading.
Using special paper, favourite coloured pens, nice envelopes and heading to the shop to buy a stamp, post a letter and wait for one in return is such a rewarding way for kids to learn about the world and other ways of life.
So how do you find pen pals for them? There are lots of ways, especially with access to the world wide web!
Many kids magazines will have a section for kids to connect by mail. You'll see them in the supermarket or newsagent. Grab a couple, sit down together and look through the pen pal pages and choose 2 or 3 to write in to.
Write to a distant relative or family friend who is living abroad; interstate or overseas. They will probably love to have that connection back home and hear familiar stories to soothe their travelling hearts, while your children can read about tales of other worlds! They might be encouraged to travel and explore the world themselves when they get older.
There are also many online communities who provide programs for kids to connect with eachother and write old fashioned letters to each other. This provides parents with a sense of comfort and assurance across the internet. One beautiful community is The Little Folk, a local Australian magazine for children who operate a program for pen friends aged 8 to 13. Their next round of applications for the program will open in May. So have a look at their site and get ready for the May run.
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