Pen pals

3 replies

seekarn · 04/03/2009 21:03

Not sure which topic to post this question in, finally plumped for here.
30 odd years ago I remember we had a scheme at school to set us up with pen pals worldwide. We all loved it and really looked forward to the letters. Does this kind of thing still exist, or has it been killed off by email etc? My young daughter loves writing and getting proper letters and I wondered if there's a "safe" way of going about this?

OP posts:

jenpet · 04/03/2009 21:16

I don't know of such a scheme seekarn, sorry, but will watch this thread with interest as my DS (7) would love to be involved in something like this too...we live in Brittany, so I'm particularly keen to encourage it as his English is terrible as it is...

mysterymachine · 05/03/2009 20:52

I don't know of any schemes set up but have you tried your school - when I was as school they organised pen pals with a twinned town/school so was kind of organised. If not anything via school, maybe your local town council especially if you are a twinned town or have a twinned town locally.
Hope you get pen pals sorted

qwertpoiuy · 15/03/2009 05:19

We had something called the International Youth Service, based in Finland. You'd fill out a form, giving your details then specifying what penpal you wanted, selecting sex, age and country.
I loved it, every day I's arrive home from school excited to see if any letters had arrived fron France/Austria/Finland/Germany. In later years, i met 2 of my penpals. Didn't stay in touch though.
There was a website for this organisation once, but I can't find it now. Maybe they're no longer operational.

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