Find out what MNers have to say about Banjo Robinsons’ personalised letters to 4-7 year olds - Non-tester? Get 15% off your subscription

[EllieMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who tested the personalised pen pal experience from Banjo Robinson the travelling cat, who helps boost creativity, reading and writing skills for their child/children.

Non-Tester? 90% of Mumsnet Tester's children wrote Banjo a reply and Banjo Robinson has now officially launched! They are offering 15% off full subscription charges with the code BanjoLovesMumsnet. This code is valid until 31/10/18.

Here’s what testers received:

• An initial introduction pack which includes: a personalised letter introducing Banjo and his travels, a world map, stickers to track Banjo’s progress, personalised stickers to use creatively, a doodle sheet to colour, a reply page to draw and write their response, a reply envelope with postage stamp stickers.
• A follow up letter from Banjo Robinson detailing his next stop in his travels including more goodies.

Here’s what Tree Climber Publishing have to say: “Banjo Robinson the cat is in India at the moment, checking out the Taj Mahal. He was at the pyramids last Tuesday, and next week he's off to the Great Wall of China. And while he’s away on his amazing travels, Banjo sends real, personalised letters to your child full of exciting tales all year round. Your child will get a world map and stickers to track Banjo’s progress and two personalised letters asking them to reply with pictures and messages.

Letters from Banjo Robinson encourage them to craft a reply, improving their writing skills and creativity. Parents can spend quality time with their children, away from tablets and TV, reading Banjo's letters, widening the child’s vocabulary, learning about different countries, and building communication skills."

Testers please answer the following questions:

• Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?
• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?
• What did you like most about the letters?
• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?
• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?
• ‘Banjo Robinson sends personalised letters, personalised stickers, colouring-in activities and writing stationary from two new countries per month. Once subscribed, parents will be able to log on to their account and compose the closing paragraph of the next letter their child receives from Banjo, enabling them to address questions their child has asked, and creating an authentic back-and-forth correspondence between child and ‘cat’.’ A Banjo Robinson subscription was £7.90/month, however as a result of your feedback, Tree Climber has decided to price this offering at £5.35. Do you think this is a fair price for the product?

All testers who leave the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

[danson16]

• Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?

I think they are ok, not fantastic and I don't think my daughter was ever very enthusiastic about receiving them because they took so long to come in the first place. I don't think there was enough to them to warrant the price either.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?

My daughter in all honesty did not seem that bothered about them. They were not at her reading ability so she didn't get to read them and me reading them she lost interest. My daughter did not write back, I think because she was not bothered by them.

• What did you like most about the letters?

I liked that they were informative and gave them something to learn.

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?

Better content for the price, even if it was something from the country to collect, a flag, an item or similar.

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?

At the moment I would not recommend it, only because I do not feel the content or the bits in the letter are worth the price it is.

[eastmidswarwicknightnanny]

Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?

We really didn't get the whole set up exciting to a 5yr old less so to an 8yr old but letters aimed at a 10yr old age range far too many words

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?
  

Language was awful hard to read and too many words 8yr old lost interest and 3yr old wanted to know if there was any stickers

Wrote back once but wasn't keen

• What did you like most about the letters?
  

Nothing

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?
  

More personalised consider child's age that's it is for

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?
  

No

[Geckos]

Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service? I think that this could be a really good product but it was way to long winded for my child's age.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back? She listened for a few minutes but became quickly bored. Sadly, she did not want to write back.

• What did you like most about the letters? I liked that they were world adventures.

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved? Tailored more for specific ages. More factual. Less long winded.

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family? Possibly, I would mention them but probably tell them to look into it themselves rather than fully recommend the product.

[Bringmewineandcake]

Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?

I had no problem with the service as I didn’t really have any expectations. I think it would be different if you set up a subscription as you’d then have a fixed idea of delivery times. I quite liked the letters but did think the language was a bit dated. I didn’t really feel it engaged my child, although she was at the lower end of the age range for the test.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?
  

She loved receiving personalised letters but didn’t really engage with the letters themselves. She wasn’t bothered about writing back, and hasn’t asked if there will be any more letters. Her favourite part was sticking the place name onto the map.

• What did you like most about the letters?
  

I didn’t really engage with the letters either to be honest. I thought the stationery used was good quality though.

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?
  

I would probably target the letters more at aged 8-11 and make the geography element more focussed.

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?
  

No I wouldn’t.

[DreamsInBlack]

I was pretty satisfied with the length of the letter, it was long enough to keep my 6 year old nephew interested and concise enough that he didn't get bored. The included stickers, map, envelope and little letter to reply got his imagination working. I thought it was a good concept to encourage literacy and his knowledge of other countries.

The colourful envelope, Banjo's adventures and the included activity items caught his imagination - once he'd got over his initial cynicism about a cat writing him a letter. ("From a cat? That's a little strange...") I thought the little touches like knowing his own cat's name and colouring, and the colour of his sofa, won him round and his enthusiasm and excitement about Banjo the globe trotting cat knowing all about him, and sending him fun and interesting letters was really endearing and magical. We had barely finished reading the first letter together before he was off to get a pencil to write his reply. His first words were "This cat is griat." Hopefully it'll help his spelling! But it showed how much he enjoyed the process. He found the letter 'from Brazil' particularly exciting as he has a great knowledge of animals so was excited that he could recognise the birds and creatures mentioned in the letter and depicted on the stickers and drawings, but it also coincided with his older sister starting a school project on the rain forest so it gave them something they could talk about together.

I liked that they encourage his imagination and thirst for learning but, because they are fun, he doesn't realise that they are also a helpful tool for improving literacy. I also liked that he felt this letter was especially written just for him. The included stickers and activities made it much more interesting than just a letter alone and really engaged him.

My main issue was that even though he was excited about writing a reply and 'posting' it under the sofa, the second letter, obviously, didn't respond to, or make mention of, questions or comments my nephew had put in his first reply so, in the final survey, I mentioned that parents should be able to access a portal on the website where they could add these details for a truly personalised experience but I now see that is something they will be able to do.

I had debated whether to have the letter sent to the 6 year old nephew, or to his 8 year old sister and I'm glad I opted for my nephew as my niece, while interested in the Brazil letter due to her school project on the rain forest, wasn't so convinced that the letters were penned by a globe trotting cat. So, while I think this type of subscription could very much benefit her literacy skills, too, I think maybe a different character might be needed to fully engage her, and hold her interest.


I would recommend it to parents who felt their child would find it engaging, enchanting and would inspire their imagination, as well as improving their literacy skills.


I wouldn't subscribe at £7.90. I feel £5.35 is getting closer to a reasonable price, and I may consider subscribing at this price, but I would say making it a flat £5 per month is fair for two printed letters and the quality of the included items, as the note and envelope for replying are quite flimsy, and should cover postage costs with a reasonable profit margin, as the parents are responsible for retrieving the reply and composing some of the content that allows for the authentic pen-pal experience for the child. However, seeing my nephew's response and enthusiasm means I will register an interest for the subscription service and will ask my nephew if he is still interested in hearing from Banjo when it is ready to launch.

[Ellienora82]

• Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?
  

I liked the concept and my daughter enjoyed receiving the letters. It would have been nice if elements of the letters were tailored to my daughters reading age/ability as we had to read the letter and I know she would have liked to read more.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?
  

She found the whole concept exciting and enjoyable. She wrote back and enjoyed posting the letters under the sofa and that our dog may help deliver it. She couldn’t wait to come down the following morning to see if the letter had been collected.

• What did you like most about the letters?
  

Everything. The concept is great and a good way to get my daughter to read/write and learn about other countries.

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?
  

More personalisation would be great.

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?
  

Yes, definitely

• ‘Banjo Robinson sends personalised letters, personalised stickers, colouring-in activities and writing stationary from two new countries per month. Once subscribed, parents will be able to log on to their account and compose the closing paragraph of the next letter their child receives from Banjo, enabling them to address questions their child has asked, and creating an authentic back-and-forth correspondence between child and ‘cat’.’ A Banjo Robinson subscription was £7.90/month, however as a result of your feedback, Tree Climber has decided to price this offering at £5.35. Do you think this is a fair price for the product?
  

Yes it is.

[DreamsInBlack]

The letters, activities and stationery included with the two letters.

[runwithme]

• Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?

DS(6) really liked getting the letters, but I really want to encourage him to read and he wasn't interested at all in that! His 10 year old DB read it out instead.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?

He loved it, but didn't want to write back. I don't think he is very confident in his writing skills and I thought this would help but it didn't.

• What did you like most about the letters?

Good quality, humorous, educational

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?

Make it more targeted for different ages

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?

Yes, to strong readers though.

[raviolig]

Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?

I thought the letter was a nice idea but didn’t include as much as I expected

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?
  

My 6 year old enjoyed receiving and reading the letter but didn’t stay interested very long

• What did you like most about the letters?
  

The content was interesting

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?
  

Adding more activities

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?
  

Not particularly without some changes

• ‘Banjo Robinson sends personalised letters, personalised stickers, colouring-in activities and writing stationary from two new countries per month. Once subscribed, parents will be able to log on to their account and compose the closing paragraph of the next letter their child receives from Banjo, enabling them to address questions their child has asked, and creating an authentic back-and-forth correspondence between child and ‘cat’.’ A Banjo Robinson subscription was £7.90/month, however as a result of your feedback, Tree Climber has decided to price this offering at £5.35. Do you think this is a fair price for the product?
  

I think it is a bit expensive

[WineCheeseSleep]

So sorry I'm late!

Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service? Very satisfied, lovely idea

What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back? He was very excited and did write back. He bought into it more than I expected. I left a chocolate so he knew it had been collected and he loved that too.

What did you like most about the letters? Getting my son to do some writing without it feeling like homework

Is there anything that you feel could be improved? I think some more info for parents in the first letter as I'd forgotten how it should work and if you needed to post the children's reply back

Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family? Yes

Banjo Robinson sends personalised letters, personalised stickers, colouring-in activities and writing stationary from two new countries per month. Once subscribed, parents will be able to log on to their account and compose the closing paragraph of the next letter their child receives from Banjo, enabling them to address questions their child has asked, and creating an authentic back-and-forth correspondence between child and ‘cat’.’ A Banjo Robinson subscription was £7.90/month, however as a result of your feedback, Tree Climber has decided to price this offering at £5.35. Do you think this is a fair price for the product? Yes

[claracluck78]

Sorry I'm late replying to this

Overall how satisfied were you with letters?
Quite satisfied. We loved the maps and the stickers but it did mean a bit of suspension of belief on my part!

What did your child think of letters? Did they reply?
We had letters to both our twins. They each loved the map that came and found the idea charming. It was great fun for me setting the scene by pretending to have been for lunch with Banjo and I think the children actually believed me! The kids replied to the first.

What did you like most?
THe educational aspect. My kids love National Geographic and learning about animals and countries, they absolutely love Go-Jetters and this was a bit like talking to them after watching an episode. We had fun reading and learning along the way.

Is there anything to be improved?
Maybe there could be a bit more of a streaming for the ages this is recommended for, my kids, aged 4 when receieved the letters, aren't great writers yet so would maybe be a different age related activity for the younger ages

Would you recommend?
I still don't know. Not for the children of similar ages to my kids but maybe for older children

Is £5.35 acceptable price?
I would be happy paying £5 a month for a subscription however I wouldn't be happy buying two a month. When we had a sub for Toucan boxes we always received a different project/theme each month. If this were the case then I would be happy to pay it, as long as it was in line with a magazine price and there was a degree of personalisation. I don't want my identical twins receiving identical subs each month as that would seem a waste of our money.

Thanks for having us on your trial & safe travels to Banjo!

[MacaroonMama]

Also late, very sorry!

Overall, how satisfied were you with the letters and service?

I got these for DS2 who is 6, hoping it would maintain his enthusiasm for reading. We both enjoyed the special letters coming in the post as post is a bit of a novelty these days! We had to read the letters together as the vocabulary and length were probably more than the average 6yo could manage but this was nice to do. The letters were attractive, stickers etc fun, and we liked the personalised elements. So overall, pretty satisfied.

What did your child think of the letters? Did they wrote back?

He did to the first one, and did a nice picture, but really wanted to post it in the post box, so we created a meta fiction re: Postman Pat Special Delivery Service, and put it in the postbox, then s note under the sofa to say the letter would be coming in the post 😆 He enjoyed reading details about different countries very much but I would have liked a bit more of this and a bit less on creating the facade of travelling cat.

What did you like most about the letters?

I liked the look of them, liked the airmail envelope of the second one, and found them interesting to sit down and read with my son. Think the purpose was confused though as to who the audience is - Child alone? with parent? - which seems to have been ironed out now.

What would you have improved?

The personalisation. This is where it fell down for me. And this is why I am not sure the child writing back really works - unless someone is going to receive all these children’s letters and tailor individual responses, it ultimately feels a bit pointless. I would rather he practised his writing to an aunt or uncle or friend in a different city.

Would you recommend?

Probably not as it stands. I think the purpose and audience were unclear from the product, though the stickers were sweet, and the personalisation began well but hadn’t been thought through. Thanks for the test though, my son went back to one of the letters last week and read it more or less independently, and I do think he enjoyed the whole experience.

[Miaow1234]

1. We never received the second letter even though Mumsnet have chased. So disappointed with the service and have one upset child who thought Banjo was writing back to her. If they can’t get this trial right I would be concerned about signing upto something like this.
   

1. She was excited to receive the letter and the things that came with it. SHe wrote a lengthy letter back.
   

1. Colourful and fun with child friendly information.
   

1. A bigger sheet of paper depending on child’s age maybe and actually sending the reply letter!
   

1. I might have done but not receiving the second letter has put me off the service to be honest.

[Epilepticmummy]

Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to test Banjo Robinsons letters.

Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?

They were good however, for a child who can't read that well I did find myself reading the letters to her and as a result she got bored verh quickly.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back?
  

She loved the fact that it was a cat writing to her, she is obsessed with cats so the thought of a cat talking to her made her day. She didn't write back but she did draw pictures for him.

• What did you like most about the letters?
  

I love how educational the letters are. For a youngster she was getting taught just the right amount of information for her to take in. Brilliant.

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?
  

I would say the price and include a maybe a little gift now and then from banjos latest adventure.

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?
  

I would definitely recommend them however, I woild recommend them to parents of children a little older around 6+ maybe?

[measureformeasure]

I was lucky enough to be selected for this product test. My daughter was so excited!
Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?
Really impressed. Lovely quality letters and the fact it’s personalised is what really makes it.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters? Did they write back? She was so so excited. Bouncing around the room when the first letter arrived. She wrote back.
  
• What did you like most about the letters? The personalisation. Details about our lives and family made her happy. I liked the poster too. It started many conversations about the world.
  
• Is there anything that you feel could be improved? If you could send an email to let parents know when the next letter is coming that would be great. My daughter was anxious to know that Banjo was ok.
  
• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family? At the revised price I’ll be subscribing when I can.

[Marie1276]

Hi,

My 7 years old daughter was very happy to receive personalised letters and as she would said,finally the postman is bringing something for her with her name on...lol 😂😁🤣
She really loved reading her letters, try to find and follow Banjo on the map which came in the first letter.
She was very excited to reply back to him,added her drawings and sealed the envelope with the stamps stickers provided.
At night she would leave it under the sofa as i made her play the game and told her Banjo is like the tooth fairy,that in the night while everybody is sleeping,he'd send a friend to collect her letter.
In the morning she rushed downstairs to see if really the letter was gone and she found out that a chocolate and £2 were left for her.
She was really happy to see that Banjo's friend really came !!!!
And she'd wait patiently to receive her second letter.
Everyday when she returned home from school,she'd ask if she received a letter from Banjo.
We don't have cat or any other pets but there're always 3 cats from the neighbours that liked to come in our garden to play around.
And they would always looked at her through the glass back door.She thought that Banjo sent his 3 friends to spy on us lol !!!!😂😁🤣
So this resumed how we really had fun with Banjo's letters 😍😍😍



Overall how satisfied were you with your child’s letters from Banjo Robinson and the service?
We were very impressed.

• What did your child think of Banjo Robinson’s letters?

She was very happy to receive personalised letters on her name.

Did they write back?
Oh yes she did and had really fun doing so.

• What did you like most about the letters?

The personalised letters that came on her name.

• Is there anything that you feel could be improved?

Yes,you could add a little toy,gift,a link to a personalised video with Banjo itself while he is travelling abroad and may be a phone call !!!

• Would you recommend the personalised letters to your friends and/or family?

Yes i would.

• ‘Banjo Robinson sends personalised letters, personalised stickers, colouring-in activities and writing stationary from two new countries per month. Once subscribed, parents will be able to log on to their account and compose the closing paragraph of the next letter their child receives from Banjo, enabling them to address questions their child has asked, and creating an authentic back-and-forth correspondence between child and ‘cat’.’ A Banjo Robinson subscription was £7.90/month, however as a result of your feedback, Tree Climber has decided to price this offering at £5.35.

Do you think this is a fair price for the product?
No i think its quite expensive unless more little things are added to the letters.

We would also love it if you could share any photos you have of the letters.
Yes,i've attached 3 pictures below.

Many thanks for letting us trialing this new product 😉

[Marie1276]

Picture 2
Sorry i can't attached all my pictures in one go,so i'm doing it separately.

[Marie1276]

Picture 3

[leccybill]

MNHQ - was there a prize winner selected from all the testers? I can't remember if there was a prize offered, it was a while ago now!

[AtSea1979]

Really hoping they bring out the older age range in this before my 9 yo DD forgets who Banjo is. I’m fed up of explaining why he hasn’t replied yet.

[Signoritawhocansway]

Did anybody sign up for this as a subscription? @MNHQ I did, with the discount and as per your email was reassured the adventure would start for us at letter three... However I've waited ages and today was pleased to see a letter in the post but it's number four! This is shambolic! I know it's not in your hands now , but I wonder if you have any clout to get me a letter three asap... Considering asking for a refund!

[EllieMumsnet]

Congratulations to skippink for winning the £300 voucher