Reviewed by
Mary
Letter-writing might be falling out of fashion, but having a penpal is a great way to encourage children to write!
Banjo Robinson is a cat who travels around the world, and writes your child a letter from every destination.
Right now he is writing from Finland, clearly an amazing place to visit!
The letters are fun, colourful, and contain wonderful anecdotes about the animal friends he meets along the way.
With his stories about his adventures are little tidbits about the countries themselves, the landscape, architecture, and culture.
When you subscribe, you provide some personal information about the recipient, including things like favorite foods and pets. These are included in the letters so the child really feels like Banjo is writing to them!
There are also little prompts and suggestions about things the child could include in their reply, which is great if they don’t always feel inspired.
You can even add an individual PS to the letter, and let Banjo pass on his congratulations for particular achievements, supportive comments, or even just a reminder to tidy their room!
As for writing back, included with the letter is a piece of writing paper, an envelope, and special sticker stamps. The letter is posted under the sofa for collection by a local cat (Cat Mail) to be passed on to Banjo. Of course what this actually means is that parents will collect the letter themselves, and keep it as a souvenir of their child’s writing!
There are also stickers for the world map that comes with Banjo’s first letter, so your child can follow Banjo and see where his latest journey has taken him/
Also included with the letter is a colouring sheet, featuring details from the letter, a city map trivia sheet, and a lovely local recipe to try out.
The Banjo Robinson website also has lots of extra printable activities, which are particularly useful for school holidays or wet weekends!
A letter arrives every two weeks, which is the perfect space of time to maintain interest but not feel like it’s too much to write.
The cost of all of this is only £5 per month for a 12 week subscription, which is incredibly good value for something so special!
