Pen Palling

I contrived a sneaky way to encourage my kids to write this summer.  Ideally, they will do some amount of writing each day, but knowing that they'll get tired of journal entries and story-writing, I had them send out several homemade postcards to friends scattered across the United States.  They drew pictures on the front and wrote messages on the back and at least some of them have reached their destinations successfully because we've received a few responses already.  I only hope that the recipients enjoy the drawings and notes as much as I do...

Paddleboarding by Jack

"I want to play soccer but Mom said no so I didn't." - Eliza

Sad Eliza NOT playing soccer.

"Thanks for being my friend.  Would you like to be my pen pal?  Love, Jack.  PS You are nice."

Somehow Jack and his friend Madi (the daughter of Ben's best friend of 35 years, give or take) have already declared their love for each other.  When Jack received this letter in response to his postcard, he read it to each member of the family, then read it to himself over and over again for days.  Before long, the card needed to be taped together.  It's good to know that at least one child has solid plans for the future.

Side note: Our second wave of postcards looked much better than the first.  We used cardstock on the first round and the markers leaked through on both sides.  On the second round I cut up posterboard and that worked much better.  Also, be sure that the size of the postcard does not exceed 4x6 if you want to use a postcard stamp.