project for kids, free products and goodies

[pocomom]

As part of our homeschooling every year I have my kids write business letters to companies of their chosing either praising or complaining a product. We have gotten such great responses. Stonyfield farms sent us several dozen farm animal stickers, we've recv'd coupons for free products, samples, and probably the best response yet was from Lego. My dd wrote last year asking for them to come out with more girl legos. She was 6 at the time and the letter was very cute. I expected a typical form letter, but we recv'd a letter back that indicated they had listened to her and decided to make more girl legos and to look for them in the store soon. And sure enough a couple of weeks later Belleville lego displays with new products were all over the stores (in time for christmas) . Whoever wrote that response was genius, letting this little kid feel like she was responsible for them. Even the companies that don't send any freebies normally go beyond the form letter for kids. My older dd and I both wrote to Swiss Miss to complain about them using sugar substitute in their regular hot cocoa. I recv'd the typical form thank you we're looking into it. She got several paragraphs of explanation, and encouragement to keep letting them know her ideas. Very validating! The kids groaned the first time I had them write a letter, now they love it and can't wait to see what comes in the mail.