My Amazing Pen Pal is a new subscription for elementary age children. Every month, your child receives a package from his pen pal Greg, along with postcards, stickers, activities, and goodies from Greg's adventures as a global treasure hunter. Kids learn history, geography, social studies, language and problem-solving skills along the way! This subscription is also supplemented with online programs and content. Fun!
This package was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the subscription review post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
The Subscription Box: My Amazing Pen Pal
The Cost: $15 Canadian (currently $10.65 US) sign-up fee plus $24.99 Canadian (currently $17.74 US per month)
The Products: A welcome box, followed by monthly packages with postcards, activities, and other goodies to help your child learn more about geography and world cultures
Ships to: US and Canada for free
Check out my review of the My Amazing Pen Pal welcome box and the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
This month's destination is Thailand! How exotic! The activity book that comes every month is pictured above, and this is a peek inside. I have to say that this activity book is much more substantial than what we are used to seeing in childrens' subscription boxes! It has about 20 pages filled with games, phrases, and interesting information about Thailand!
These are the stickers my son (age 7) received this month. He is a sticker fanatic! The first two sheets are stickers of classic Thai icons, and the one on the far right is a sticker to put in his passport we received in the welcome package.
We found two cards in the package. The top one is a recipe for Pad Thai, and talk about amazing timing! I have been craving Pad Thai for about a month now, and now we are totally going to make this as soon as my wok from Hamptons Lane comes! (Although you can use a skillet, too.) The bottom is a postcard with a lovely scene from Phuket. Unlike many postcards that come in kids' subscriptions, this one actually has a blank postcard template on the back so my son can mail it to someone.
Our souvenir this month is a little wooden elephant! We learned a lot about Thailand's elephants with this month's subscription! This is precious and will be a good reminder of all we've learned. On the right is a balloon. I photograph package contents as soon as I get them, so sometimes I'm not 100% sure what they are. It turns out this is part of the craft...
...a balloon lantern! These are the rest of the supplies and instructions. The method is basically papier-mache, but we haven't had time to finish it yet. It will be super cool when we complete it, though, so I will try to remember to include a picture next month.
Finally, there were two additional items in the package: an envelope addressed to Greg and a plane ticket to our next destination! (Spoiler alert: We think it's Beijing.) I think it's awesome that kids can snail mail Greg as well as email him, but I don't think the stamp is legal for the US? If my son wants to snail mail Greg we will probably go to the post office and check it out.
In addition to everything that's included in the monthly packages, my son's subscription also includes the online content.
And it's truly A LOT of online content! These pictures are two screen shots of all the content that's provided. There are four "episodes" of Greg's travels, which are all little mini-tv shows that show what Greg is up to in Thailand. My son was captivated by these, so that's a good sign! There are two games for my son to play. There are also videos of fun and unusual things in Thailand, like a baby tiger and a fire dancer!
There were a few photo albums from Thailand such as this one, and I love how they are organized. In addition to the night market pictures, there are photos of Thai flowers (gorgeous), and unusual bathroom signs (my son's favorite, of course).
Greg also posted four blog entries this month about Thailand! These are packed with great information. I think these really helped my son get a feel for what life in Thailand is really like.
In some of these screen shots you might see a little blue sign in the lower right corner that says "Email Me." This brings me to my favorite part of the subscription. The pen-pal thing is real! My son can email Greg, and he will get a response! My son sent Greg his guess about where Greg will be traveling next, and Greg emailed him back right away to confirm! This was pretty exciting for us. I am impressed that Greg can reply to all the little ones personally like this! Very cool!
Verdict: My Amazing Pen Pal is, actually, amazing. You get all of this for $11, y'all. I seriously don't know how they do it. We had to kind of hurry through parts of the package because I needed to write this review, but honestly, the contents of the package plus the online content is enough to keep my son engaged all month long! And it packed in so much information about Thai culture, geography, food, language, and history! I think this is a fabulous, fun subscription for children, with a huge educational value, that almost anyone can afford!
What do you think of My Amazing Pen Pal?
Please do not enter your email address in the Name field or in the comment content. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *. Remember to post with kindness and respect. Comments with offensive language, cruelness to others, etc will not be approved. See our full comment policy here.