Penpalling for Children

For me penpalling started when I was 13 years old and my best friend got a penpal from an address on a children's TV program. I anticipated with her the arrival of every letter from her Italian penpal, Rafael. After a time, she asked Rafael if he had a friend who would like an American penpal, and one fine day I received a letter from Michele, my new penpal in Rome!

Several months later, both my friend and I found another address for a penpal service and wrote in. I got my second penpal, Diana in Modesto, California, and I was on a roll!

I couldn't get enough of the excitement of finding a letter just for me in our mailbox. I enjoyed learning about the places people lived, how things were different, and more often just the same, as the way I lived! Two more early penpals whom I remember were Kumi from Japan and Karen from Australia.

I took joy in choosing just the right stationery for each letter, and decorating them with stickers and stamps. Enclosures were common, not only FBs but stickers, postcards, postage stamps and coins. My collections were begun, another educational by-product of my new penpal hobby.

Mostly I learned to write clearly and communicate effectively via the written word, a skill that later served me well in college and graduate school. The importance of communication skills cannot be overlooked in today's world, and it is a primary reason why I decided to pique my daughter Marielle's interest in penpalling at age 9. She had been having some trouble with reading comprehension in school, and writing to communicate with others is one excellent way to improve these important skills.

I wrote to a woman I saw in a FB who had a daughter Marielle's age and soon Marielle received her first penpal letter from Rachel in Washington state! We got out the atlas and looked up her town, and Marielle got busy writing her first letter. I helped to guide her as to how to construct the letter and to write clearly and with good descriptions so that her friend would understand all that she wanted to say. Marielle had as much fun choosing stickers to enclose and decorating the envelope as she did writing the letter! Later I found another address for a little girl in the Bahamas and then, in Inky Trails, another for a girl in England.

Now Marielle is learning about different places and cultures as well as enhancing her writing and reading comprehension. Every day when she comes home from school the first thing she asks is "Did I get a letter?" For me, my penpalling hobby has resulted in long-lasting friendships which I have treasured over the years. When I was in Rome in 1985 I met my penpal Michele. He took me sightseeing around the city and out for real Italian pizza! My pal Kumi from Japan visited me in 1990. She taught me some Japanese and how to do origami. Another pal from England visited in 1994, with her children who got on great with mine.

I hope my daughter is lucky enought to maintain the new friendships she has made and maybe even gets the chance to meet her friends one day. If you have children or grandchildren, I would highly recommend getting them started into penpalling! It is educational and fun and can become a life-long enriching part of their lives.