Will You Be My Pen Pal?

Although Laurel’s daycare runs year round, the summer tends to be a time for transition, and the recent departure of one of her friends reminded me of something I loved doing as a child: exchanging letters with pen pals. Laurel’s friend (or actually, her parents) left a colorful paper bag in each friend’s mail pouch with a sweet goodbye letter that included the friend's mailing address and a request to be pen pals. Also handily included: a note card and self-addressed stamped envelope to get the ball rolling.
During the ride home from school I explained the pen pal concept to Laurel and it was amazing to see her latch onto the idea. While I assembled dinner, she diligently worked on creating a princess castle collage and drawing inside the card (shown below) and together we wrote a message to paste on the back.

I still can’t get over what a simple and lovely idea this is: not only does pen pal’ing (is that even a verb?) offer a means to ease transition pangs, but I love the idea that it revives the art of written correspondence for the wee generation.

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Pen and quill image credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net