Kids' Mailbox

So, I've had this project in the back of my mind for a couple weeks. I've been trying to encourage the kids to write more letters, so I started a little envelope with slips of paper that have names of friends and family on them. They can choose a name each week and write a letter (or send a picture or whatever) to that person.

Then I thought that it would be a nice idea to gather all their letter-writing supplies in one place. After fiddling with ideas, I realized that the container should be (duh) a mailbox. I collected some empty cereal boxes, taped them together and trimmed at an angle to make a mailbox shape, with built-in dividers. I covered the boxes with paper and covered the edges with color duct tape (my new favorite thing!).



The outside looks much prettier than the inside, but it works.



Then I gathered supplies ... writing papers, address labels, pencils, envelopes. As I was putting these things together, it occurred to me that if they had their own address book, they could really do this all by themselves.





A normal person would have waited until the next day and gone to the dollar store and bought one. A normal person in a hurry may have just grabbed one of a zillion blank notebooks lying around the house and used that. But since we are dealing with crazy lady over here, it was decided at 9:00 at night that I must make my own.





Though I'm actually thrilled with how it turned out. And now you all get to benefit from my craziness, because I'm including a link to the pdf.

• The book pages are already imposed.
• Print out the pages double sided on a color printer, using text paper.
• Print the cover seperately (b&w) on color card stock.
• Fold cover, fold pages and tuck inside.
• Attach with long-armed stapler down the center seam, cover with black binding tape.
• Trim edges with an Xacto knife. Cut off outside corners to finish.

Kids' Printable Address book here.
Kids' Address book cover here.