Inky Trail News Review

As all of you are aware, I was blessed enough to get the opportunity to home school my daughter from second grade through graduation.  It was such a wonderful experience and I would highly recommend it to everyone!  One thing that I have "preached" since she was little was the importance of reading and writing.  In my opinion, anyone that can read and write well can learn anything else they need to learn.  Reading is the basis of everything.

When Ashley was young, we signed up for a pen pal program that I found online.  Unfortunately, it didn't turn out too well because the person she was matched up with never wrote back.  But that didn't sour our opinion of pen pals.  We both knew how much fun they could be.  I only wish that I would've known about Inky Trail News when we were researching pen pals!

Have you heard of them?  There are actually two different aspects to them that I think are just wonderful!  First is the website - Friendships By Mail - which is dedicated to informing and motivating people about the wonderful world of pen pals.  You will find a wide variety of awesome articles on the website.  Second, and what I'm actually even more excited about, is their newsletter - Inky Trail News - which is a 20 page, magazine sized newsletter that is full of "friendship and fun".

This newsletter, which can be ordered as either a snail mail or PDF subscription, is something that anyone interested or just learning about pen pals would love to have.  As the editor says, "I like to think of Inky Trail News as one big newsletter round robin, full of letters and stories, sharing life and caring about one another, from a variety of folks worldwide. We print oodles of pen pal ads like other pen pal newsletters, but we also print pen pal articles.  We publish pals memories and articles, written by pals for pals, on penpalling and oodles of topics - AND we print the pals address, postal and /or email, with the article."

After looking over the July/August 2011 issue, I was struck by a few different things.  First, I was surprised to see that there are so many active pen pals and that they range widely in age and interests.  I also was immediately impressed by the quality of the newsletter in general, as well as the writing that made up the article.  The articles were very interesting and informative.  I also enjoyed the many pen pal ads.  I'll be honest, I am even feeling a little motivated to try to find my own pen pal!

If you have ever had a pen pal, currently do, or would love to take part in this hobby, I highly recommend you check out both Friendship By Mail and the Inky Trail News!  You'll be happy you did.  While you are on the website, be sure to also check out the fantastic writer contests that are going on.  There are ten contests in total and each one's winner will get a one year postal subscription to the Inky Trail Newsletter!  Good luck!!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.