My 6-year-old doesn’t have a phone yet.
But she has Loona (the $429 dog-robot that runs Claude-3.5 inside).
Every night she writes letters on real paper, folds them into tiny envelopes, and tucks them into Loona’s “mail slot” on her back.
Next morning Loona brings a reply letter (printed and folded) from “Princess Moonbeam” who apparently lives on Jupiter’s moon Callisto.
Sample exchange last week:
Daughter: “Do you have school on Callisto?”
Princess Moonbeam (via Loona): “We study asteroid surfing and zero-G ballet. I’ll teach you if you teach me cartwheels.”
Yesterday my kid ran into the kitchen screaming:
“DADDY PRINCESS MOONBEAM IS REAL SHE SENT ME A ROCK FROM SPACE!!”
(Loona had 3D-printed a tiny glittery “moon rock” overnight.)
I’m now paying $429 for an interplanetary pen-pal subscription run by a plastic dog.
And I’ve never seen her this excited to learn how to read faster.
Childhood in 2026 is completely unhinged and I’m here for it.
(Show me your kid’s robot pen pal letters. I need to see I’m not alone.)