Want to Have a Pen Pal Program??

[Lucy]

I was reading the Christmas card exchange thread, and thought it would be nice to have a penpal program where we match up kids from your daycare with similar kids in another daycare, and they can send (to your address) a picture of themselves, draw pictures for each other, write short notes, etc. It would be great for the K and 1st graders especially, as they are learning to read and write, but would also be good practice for the ones a little older than this. And for that matter, the pre-schoolers could still draw pictures and write their names! If they're old enough, they could talk about what it's like in the state where they live.

I know for my kids, the 4th graders and above might think it was silly, but 3rd and below would like it I think. We could say age 3 or 4 to age 8 or 9?? We could give a brief profile of each kid - name, age, grade, gender, interests - and then match them up with a similar kid from another daycare. We'd have to get parent approval I would think ?

The profiles would have to be by PM so that they're not online. We could also do a whole DC swap if we had 2 dc's with similar kids. Or your kids could do the letters and pictures as a group and send them to another DC's whole group, and vice-versa.

Thoughts? Different ideas that might work? I'm kind of excited to do this if we have enough interest!

[Blackcat31]

Cool idea Lucy!

A great way for some of the older kids to hone their reading, writing and communication skills.

I'd be interested in participating!

[Cradle2crayons]

Me too!!

[melilley]

I love this idea! I'll have to join in when my kids get older!

My cousin had a pen pal from a different state (when she was younger) and years later they actually met!

[Blackcat31]

I love this idea! I'll have to join in when my kids get older!

My cousin had a pen pal from a different state (when she was younger) and years later they actually met!

I still have my pen pal from 4th grade. We did meet a couple times in real life and exchange Christmas cards and family photos every year.

That may not seem like such a long time but it was 1979 when I was in 4th grade.

[Neekie]

Oh, this would be so much fun for me and the kids. I would definitely be interested. Count me in.

[Lucy]

Ok, so now let's start talking about the logistics.

One kid/One kid exchange? Whole DC exchange?

Profiles and addresses PM'd to one forum member and they assign exchanges? Post anonymous profiles in a special thread and then handpick who you want your dck to write to, and PM that forum member for their address?

Letters go out whenever you have time? Letters go out once a quarter or month?

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

happyface

[Lucy]

I still have my pen pal from 4th grade. We did meet a couple times in real life and exchange Christmas cards and family photos every year.

That may not seem like such a long time but it was 1979 when I was in 4th grade.

Um... 4th grade would've been 1972 for me!

[Blackcat31]

Ok, so now let's start talking about the logistics.

One kid/One kid exchange? Whole DC exchange?

Profiles and addresses PM'd to one forum member and they assign exchanges? Post anonymous profiles in a special thread and then handpick who you want your dck to write to, and PM that forum member for their address?

Letters go out whenever you have time? Letters go out once a quarter or month?

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

happyface

I think we should do whole daycare exchanges.....

Each daycare matched with another daycare that has similar aged kids.

If you want, I will volunteer to collect personal mailing info and assign matches to each other.....(as a moderator, I already know everyone's registration info...kwim?)

I think if we get matched with another daycare that has older kids, we can help them maybe form some one on one relationships with the older kids in our "matched" daycare.

I don't know....just bouncing some ideas around.....

Sometimes, similarities make things easy but differences make things fun and a great learning experience too.

[Neekie]

I like the idea of a whole day care exchange. And I think once a month or so would be nice and maybe do something special on holidays like exchange home-made valentines on Valentine's Day or something. And I think it would be fun to try to match day cares from completely different areas in the states like Minnesota with Florida or day cares from two different countries.

[Lucy]

I like the whole DC idea too now that I think about it. It would actually get my older ones more interested if we just received one big package with lots of letters and pictures, and all of us could read all of them.

So let's start a new thread - it could be a sticky - and we can do ANONYMOUS profiles of our kids' ages, genders, interests, etc., then Blackcat can PM us who we are matched with, and what their home address is.

Whaddya think???

[Blackcat31]

I like the whole DC idea too now that I think about it. It would actually get my older ones more interested if we just received one big package with lots of letters and pictures, and all of us could read all of them.

So let's start a new thread - it could be a sticky - and we can do ANONYMOUS profiles of our kids' ages, genders, interests, etc., then Blackcat can PM us who we are matched with, and what their home address is.

Whaddya think???

How about if anyone is interested, they PM me their info

name
address
number of kids
ages/genders of kids

by a specific date. I will then take the profiles and make matches and then notify each provider who their pen pal daycare is?

I think it sounds easier than posting all that anonymously...

I will start a thread stating this and give a deadline to have submitted the info. What date should we give? What month should we start with for the first contact/intro letters?

[Neekie]

My day care kids were pen pals with my friends day care kids a couple of years ago or so. I am in Wisconsin and she is in North Carolina. Our kids used to draw pictures for each other and write letters and send them in the mail and e-mail pictures of themselves and their day cares. They talked to each other on messenger (Skype) and even talked to each other on the phone. One day as my friend's kids were getting ready for circle time, they asked if those kids from Wisconsin were going to be coming over to join them in circle time. LOL

My friends kids enjoyed looking at pictures of frozen lakes. They were so surprised to hear that there are little houses sitting out in the middle of lakes and that we sit in them and fish through a little hole in the ice. They were also surprised that we plow the snow on the lakes and make ice roads to drive our trucks on. When they saw pictures of the ice roads they thought it would be nice to roller blade on them. LOL

[Neekie]

I think it would be nice to start in January and start fresh with the new year. And Christmas is always so busy anyway, it would be nice to get past that holiday season first I think.

[Michelle]

I think this is an awesome idea
I think the kids here would love it