SpaceMail Pal is a postcard subscription for kids ages 4-11 featuring fun facts about space. The cards are written by a PBS Kids scriptwriter and designed to be educational, collectible, and conversational.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This is a review of the $8.99/month plan, which includes 4 postcards per month. Normally these postcards would be sent out weekly to your child, but we received all 4 at once for review purposes.
The Subscription Box: SpaceMail Pal
The Cost: You can choose to receive 1, 2, or 4 postcards each month. Pricing starts at $2.99/month for one postcard, $5.49/month for two postcards, and $8.99/month for four postcards.
The Products: Postcards for kids featuring fun facts about space
Ships to: U.S. only
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This is our fourth month reviewing SpaceMail Pal. We've gotten topics from familiar planetary neighbors to constellations I know, to super far-out galaxies and other cool galactic places that I'd never heard of before.
SpaceMail Pal typically sends 1 postcard at a time; you can select to have 1, 2, or 4 postcards delivered each month. The postcards are sent through the mail just like a regular postcard, so there will be postal artifacts on them, including those cool space exploration stamps!
Each card has a photo or illustration of a topic on the front, and then a letter from Astronaut Neil and Robot Sally on the back.
The first postcard this month is The Pillars of Creation, a mere 7 thousand light years away from Earth. The text explains that these gas and dust clouds are actually new stars being born!
SpaceMail Pal always uses great analogies to explain time and size to kids. On this card, they share that our enter solar system could fit inside 1 of the Pillars' "fingers."
Whoops! This one arrived in less-than-stellar condition. Since these are postcards, they usually have some artifacts from the shipping process, but this is the first time we've ever had one torn.
Everything is still perfectly legible! This card is about Polaris, aka the North Star (sadly not the band from Pete and Pete). SpaceMail Pal explains why this star is so special due to it's brightness and alignment with Earth's axis.
They also mention that different stars have served as the North Star in the past, which I didn't realize!
Here's a more familiar planetary body: Venus!
This card uses some fun comparisons to explain Venus as being similar to but much more hostile than Earth, as if it's our "evil twin" planet.
Halley's Comet! I was fascinated by this as a kid, especially since it passed by Earth when I was too young to remember and won't be back again until 2061. Talking about time like this gives kids some kind of marker; telling them they'll be grown-ups, finished with school and maybe with families of their own by the next time Halley's Comet comes around is a pretty cool thing for a young kid to think about and gives them a unique perspective.
Verdict: SpaceMail Pal is a fun, affordable STEM subscription for kids who love to get things in the mail. If you know a kid who loves to read and explore science topics, this might be worthwhile to introduce them to some new subjects.
Parents should note that while this subscription is super affordable, it does not include any discussion guide or additional material, and there's not a consistent "theme" month to month... you'll be jumping around to a lot of different parts of the universe! It would be really fun to organize your cards each month in a postcard box, so that kids can come back to smaller collections of planets vs constellations vs far out places.
What do you think of SpaceMail Pal? Do you have any aspiring astronauts in your life who would enjoy this subscription?
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