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When I was in about 5th grade, I found an ad at the end of a children’s magazine to get a pen-pal from another country. With a #2 pencil, I bubbled in my name, my interests, and the top countries I was interested in: Yugoslavia (as it was called!), Mexico, Australia.

Letters and postcards from my pen-pal, Lily

In a couple of weeks I was matched with “Liliana from Yugoslavia”- we ended up writing for more than 10 years before we lost touch! It was an incredible experience to exchange pictures (I still have her stoic 5th grade school picture), stories from our schools, postcards from our vacations, etc. I remember the excitement of coming home from school and finding her letter on my bed: foreign stamps scattered across a colored envelope, addressed to me with her curly, distinctive handwriting. I can even recall when she told me I needed to start to address her letter to Macedonia, because it had declared independence and was its own country.

Writing to a pen-pal in another country can facilitate lifelong friendships- and at a minimum it creates a great learning experience that enhances social studies, geography, penmanship, and language skills. There are a couple of different ways to go about finding a pen-pal for your kids from another country. Continue reading →