Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Trying to Get Kids Interested - from Phab Philately
Much is said in the philatelic media about our hobby dying and the lack of youth involvement in stamp collecting. As collectors/philatelists it is our job to try to entice people into the hobby. Now, we will continue to fight an up hill battle with the likes of X Box, PS3, Wii's, et al. we can atleast try to involve them some how.
At my house I try to involve my children as much as possible. One such way is developing small mounted frames with stamps of a particular frame to show them the collecting possibilities that exist.
For my son I have created a few displays that reflect his interests:
For my oldest daughter I have put together the following:
And not leave out the youngest, she has:
Now will these get the kids collecting? Only time will tell, but it can't hurt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an aside I have purchased packs of stamps for the kids as well, they were keen but then lost interest after a while.
Not to long ago the youngest was at my desk using tweezers moving my stamps and in her 2½ year old language said she was being like Daddy when it was discovered she wasn't where she was supposed to be.
But hey as long as we get them into the hobby.
Alyn
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Delightful Alyn,
And you have created heirlooms and treasures that will continue to be appreciated as your family grows. For the rest of us- making a framed presentation around a particular date (birthday/occasion/special accomplishment etc.) is a wonderful suggestion.
Thank you for that thought Alyn.
Dan C.
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Both of my Son's are grown,gone and married BUT I have 5 Grand Daughters Two of which are in Texas at the time ( Father is in the Army ) but I have 3 that live close by. The three that live near here get with me once a week and we discuss stamps , go over our collections, trade stamps and the two that live in Texas talk with me on a regular basis each week and we discuss what they have been collecting. It gives us and opportunity to have some family time together and to communicate with each other on a regular basis and discuss our hobby. The three that live near me are 7,4 and 17 and the two that live in Texas are 9 and 5. They became interested in Paw-Paw's collection several years ago and with our constant communication they have held interest in the hobby. Hope it continues and I will do all that I can to see that it does. The ones that live in Texas have also gotten several of their school mates interested and they spend time together with their collections.
P.S. BOTH of my Son's collect Stamps and Coins...They took it after me !
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This is a great thread.
I have given up on my kids but I still have hope with the grandkids. I turned my 7 year old grandson loose with a pile of stamps and mounts and he decorated his headboard and closet door.
I am a merit badge counselor for the scouts but scouts wanting a merit badge in stamp collecting are far and few between. One of these days I am going to visit the local troop and give a presentation on the basics of collecting stamps, talk about stamps and their associated history.
Many local libraries have display cases where the public or community organizations can create and display items or collections. Alyns pictures would make a nice display and possibly peek some new interest with old and young collectors.
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OK, so I'm going to put my money where my mouth is from another thread.
So besides several presentations, do we have some article between us that can be cobbled together into a SOR Kid's section?
---Pat
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Pat,
If you have ideas on topics I am game to help out. Heck I am still a kid at heart. 
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i'd love to see the various successes we've had in getting kids, our own and others', involved.
David
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Dear Pat & Logistical 1,
Count me in as well if you need another cook to make the stew
Dan C.
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Before TV,computers, & I=phones it was quite easy to get children interested in stamps. Back in the 1930's, stamp collecting was the "in" thing, and most of us had collections. Woolworth 5 & 10 sold stamps in approval books, and you could pick what you wanted at a few cents each, and they also sold packets and supplies. We used tmall groups to buy our stamps, and then trade with each other when we got home.
I tried to get my kids interested, but to no avail, and now the same with my grand kids. There is just too much going on in the world to keep their interest, and stamps is not one of them.
One thing I used to do at Halloween trick or treat, is give small bags of stamps away with the candy.
Richaard
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My son always watches me working carefully with stamps and covers and he is convinced that my collection is dearer to me than him!! I got him intersted in stamps by letting him find a few quiz answers in catalogs, now whenever he gets a school project he gets out the Scott 1999 set and start going over them and other philatelic books that I have to find out the answers or to build up a presentation. Believe me he has done some wonderful presentations already but those were kept by his school on display - one was on Indian dresses, another was on fruit bearing large trees another I remember was on Space achievements.
He is respectful of stamps and philately because of the information and knowledge he can get (I have restricted his PC use and his online time! Yes we can still dominate our children in India!!) I am hopeful that my collection will not get wasted.
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Like Saleem's son, my daughter comes down to my study occasionally and helps me find stamps in the catalogue. She was ecstatic when she found an illustration matching the Turkish stamp i was trying to ID. She's far more visually acute than I am, even when my vision was clearer.
Some of you already know her, having sent her post cards from your hometowns. And Saleem was kind enough to send me a beautifully garbed doll for one of her projects.
Who knows if it will stick long term, but we can't worry about that; all we can do is allow for the possibility of positive associations and hope that, at some later date, that's what they remember when they pick up a colorful envelope and think about entering the hobby. After all, few of us continued, uninterrupted from our childhood through our dotage.
David
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01:32:21pm
I have spoken at my children's school at least once a year since 2007 about stamp collecting. I always talk about general stamp collecting and I find out what they are learning about in class and then try to incorporate that into my discussion. One day I was there on UN Day, so I talked about UN Stamps. Another day I came in on Lincoln's Birthday and showed them a bunch of Lincoln stamps and stamps that related to the civil war. I also brought in Black History stamps because it was February. One year they were studying the American Revolution. I enjoyed this one because I started collecting around the time of the Bicentennial, so I got to show them all the stamps issued around the Bicentennial. I always gave out an envelope of used Worldwide Stamps and common First Day Covers and I would have a lottery for a few sheets of kid friendly stamps such as the Star Wars, Comic Book, Baseball Players etc. I would put notes to the parents if their children were interested to contact me, and I would point them in the right direction to get started. Never got a call.
Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity go do one this year. My job is not as flexible as it was in the past. I'm hoping I can find a free day where school is open.
Our school also has an afternoon program called the Discovery Series. Back when my job had more flexible hours, I had created an outline for a Stamp Collecting program. I submitted it, and got some resistance from the person who runs the program. She thought it wouldn't be interesting enough. I got another parent to talk to her, so she accepted it but we couldn't get enough kids to sign up. You had to have at least 5 and 3 had signed up.
Our stamp club contacted the local Boy Scouts. We just wanted to be able to come into one of their meetings and talk about collecting but they did not seem all that interested. They offered us to be a mentor for the Stamp Collecting Badge, but I'm not really up for doing that because you would kind of be on call for the whole region not just for that troop. We were hoping to do something much less formal and talk to the group and not just individuals.
With all this, my kids never showed any interest in collecting. It is definitely and uphill battle but battle we must.
Bob
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07:51:02pm
Obviously many members have experience with involving kids and do a great job of it. I think Pat has a fabulous grasp on this and I was very impressed by the album pages he makes that educate his kids as well as allow them to have fun with their stamps. Anytime you want to share more of your album pages, Pat, I'd love to see them!
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So I went through my stuff to see what I have. We should all see what we have as well and figure out whether it would be useful for this section. Most of the things I have gathered can work for adults as well, but I tried to gear it down to kid friendly type material.
_ Slideshow Introducing Stamp Collecting by me
_ Slideshow Introducing Stamp collecting by BobStamp
_ Help IDing Difficult Modern Stamps
_ 2897~3133 - Flag Over Porch by Mystic
_ 4101-4116 - Snowflakes by me
_ 4125-4128 - Liberty Bell Forever by Mystic
_ 4486-4491&4559-4564 - Lady Liberty & Flag by me
_ 4629-4648 - Four Flags by me
_ American Design Series by me
_ Introduction To Stamps by Mary H. Lawson, National Postal Museum
_ Aerograms by Wikipedia
_ Stamp Classification by me with lots of help from SOR
_ Descriptive Terms FAQ by SOR
_ Hidden Images in United States Stamps by me
_ How Postage Stamps Are Made by Unknown
_ How To Involve A Youngster by David Teisler (WHO? LOL.)
_ Stamp Collecting For Kids from http://www.2-clicks-stamps.com/article/stamp-collecting-for-kids.html
Some of this stuff we would either need to get permission to reproduce or rewrite it enough to utilize the information. Some of this stuff could actually be cross-referenced into the more mature audience library as well. Not sure why you couldn't have the same article be linked by both libraries. What else do we have?
---Pat
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Pat,
You must get in touch with Ralph to see if these can be archived for our members perhaps in the article section, or in another category.Nice work.
Dan C.
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07:51:20pm
Pat,
I would be interested in reading the Hidden Images in United States Stamps. I collect worldwide but by far my largest collection is US and US Back of Book. Do you think it will be on SOR soon?
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At http://www.spellman.org/ you'll find wonderful info about a fantastic place to go yourself, or with kids/grandkids/scout groups, etc to get them interested in stamp collecting. The Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History in Weston, Massachusetts (not far from Boston) is one of only two such museums in the country, the other being in Washington, DC!
Their monthly Family Activity Day is particularly fun and "inviting". They are theme-based with hands-on projects and lots of stamps take-aways available. Education director, Henry Lukas (a former school principal), and his team of volunteers, do an outstanding job!
The museum maintains a busy schedule of fascinating presenters, some weekends,some nights, throughout the year.
For the very serious philatelist, their resource library is very extensive, and even the non-philatelists will enjoy the Museum's popular gift shop. The museum, whose interetsing history is worth checking out, also serves as an official post office for mailing.
Check their website to see their hours "open" before visiting as it is not a 9 to 5 operation...but well worth the trip!
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I have brought this idea up in the past and I am not sure this is a direction we would want to consider but there are lots of interesting articles on the web for beginning and seasoned collectors. I think it would be much simpler to create a library of links to the articles with a brief summary explaining the article or page content. Obviously the library would need a librarian to delete the expired links and add new links to the library. Permission isn't needed to link to an article and if the author updates his article we don't have to.
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Tell them that it will get them high and not to do it.
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This wasn't my idea, but I always have thought it was a good one. The wife of a stamp dealer I knew, used to make up little packets with 10 to 15 bright colourful topical stamps, her husband's business card, and a card printed up with the location, date, etc of the local stamp club.
Everytime she was in the grocery store, or anywhere there were kids, (WITH THEIR PARENTS) she would ask permission to give the kids a packet of stamps. She would tell them she was with the local stamp club, and it was a good hobby for everyone, including kids. She also personally invited them to come to the club, and bring the stamp packet with them, to receive another larger packet of stamps from her.
She didn't use expensive stamps, knowing that most of them would eventually if not before they even left the store, end up in the trash, but she did manage to get a few kids and some parents with and without their kids to come to the club over the years. Some became members. Others just came once to see what was going on, and never came back, but it helped get a few kids started and helped to draw new members to their club.
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I've found that my kids will take an interest if I spend the time with them on their stamps. That means sacrifice on my part, and barely getting anything done for myself. Also, limiting time on computers/TV does it as well.
I will often trade doing one indoor activity of their choice, maybe a Pokemon match or a soccer match on the Wii, provided they do another activity of my choice, such as work on the stamp collection or play a more traditional board game.
Finally, drawing on my own experience as a child, I try to make the hobby less frustrating. I always was discouraged having basically worthless stamps and crummy starter albums and little direction from my parents. It cost me a good bit of money, but I made sure my son had a decent US album, more or less complete to 2000. I also helped him purchase three partially filled world wide albums from auction or dealers and the material necessary to create his own worldwide albums, which includes the Steiner pages and really nice archival quality paper. It cost a pretty penny, but he is interested. No frustration from having a stamp and not having a space in an album to place it, which for me was a key source of frustration as a kid, because I was a compulsive space filler.
But truthfully, there are so many interesting things children can do today that you can't expect them to devote hours and hours to the hobby. A few hours here and there working on something that will still have value when they are older is what I am betting will do the trick.
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HungaryForYou...... Sounds like you are doing a great job getting your kids interested. Keep up the good work. It's nice to see that you have encouraged world wide too.
One way to really discourage a kid from collecting is to try and tell them what to collect. We had a man bring his grandson to the club a few years ago. NOTHING was good enough for the man. The boy, around 10 years old, was actually really interested in collecting. No matter what he asked for if it was a topical, he wasn't allowed to have it. He asked about a couple of different countries, and he was told no. The only thing his grandfather wanted him to have was MNH Canada. Then it had to be in 100% perfect condition.
So what was the point of him getting his grandson to collect? The poor little guy was so bored and unhappy. They never came back to the club. I can't imagine that he ever got back to even trying to collect.
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I thought about this topic a bit after I posted and asked myself why my son has an interest in collecting stamps. There are 2 key reasons:
1. He likes to collect, especially to fill spaces in a book. He has in the past with soccer and football cards. He also buys Pokemon cards, but mainly to play the game.
2. He likes anything that is like a treasure hunt. The older the stamp, the more excited he gets, even though they may not really be worth all that much. I try not to discourage the viewpoint of stamp collecting as an investment or treasure hunt because I know that is one of the main draws for him.
It doesn't hurt that I have an nearly endless stream of US duplicates to throw at him and plenty of worldwide as well.
So to generalize a bit, I would wager that stamp collecting can be interesting to kids 12 and under provided:
* They are mostly doing busy/active work, mainly putting stamps in albums, sorting etc., or searching for treasures. But, I know I my son would lose interest in visiting museums, reading about stamps, listening to lectures, or doing laborious tasks. So keep it light and active.
* They think their collection is worth something or might be worth something some day.
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The below is a copy and paste (with exceptions for formatting) from one my blog posts.
Trying to Get Kids Interested - from Phab Philately
Much is said in the philatelic media about our hobby dying and the lack of youth involvement in stamp collecting. As collectors/philatelists it is our job to try to entice people into the hobby. Now, we will continue to fight an up hill battle with the likes of X Box, PS3, Wii's, et al. we can atleast try to involve them some how.
At my house I try to involve my children as much as possible. One such way is developing small mounted frames with stamps of a particular frame to show them the collecting possibilities that exist.
For my son I have created a few displays that reflect his interests:
For my oldest daughter I have put together the following:
And not leave out the youngest, she has:
Now will these get the kids collecting? Only time will tell, but it can't hurt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an aside I have purchased packs of stamps for the kids as well, they were keen but then lost interest after a while.
Not to long ago the youngest was at my desk using tweezers moving my stamps and in her 2½ year old language said she was being like Daddy when it was discovered she wasn't where she was supposed to be.
But hey as long as we get them into the hobby.
Alyn
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Delightful Alyn,
And you have created heirlooms and treasures that will continue to be appreciated as your family grows. For the rest of us- making a framed presentation around a particular date (birthday/occasion/special accomplishment etc.) is a wonderful suggestion.
Thank you for that thought Alyn.
Dan C.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Both of my Son's are grown,gone and married BUT I have 5 Grand Daughters Two of which are in Texas at the time ( Father is in the Army ) but I have 3 that live close by. The three that live near here get with me once a week and we discuss stamps , go over our collections, trade stamps and the two that live in Texas talk with me on a regular basis each week and we discuss what they have been collecting. It gives us and opportunity to have some family time together and to communicate with each other on a regular basis and discuss our hobby. The three that live near me are 7,4 and 17 and the two that live in Texas are 9 and 5. They became interested in Paw-Paw's collection several years ago and with our constant communication they have held interest in the hobby. Hope it continues and I will do all that I can to see that it does. The ones that live in Texas have also gotten several of their school mates interested and they spend time together with their collections.
P.S. BOTH of my Son's collect Stamps and Coins...They took it after me !
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
This is a great thread.
I have given up on my kids but I still have hope with the grandkids. I turned my 7 year old grandson loose with a pile of stamps and mounts and he decorated his headboard and closet door.
I am a merit badge counselor for the scouts but scouts wanting a merit badge in stamp collecting are far and few between. One of these days I am going to visit the local troop and give a presentation on the basics of collecting stamps, talk about stamps and their associated history.
Many local libraries have display cases where the public or community organizations can create and display items or collections. Alyns pictures would make a nice display and possibly peek some new interest with old and young collectors.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
OK, so I'm going to put my money where my mouth is from another thread.
So besides several presentations, do we have some article between us that can be cobbled together into a SOR Kid's section?
---Pat
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Pat,
If you have ideas on topics I am game to help out. Heck I am still a kid at heart.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
i'd love to see the various successes we've had in getting kids, our own and others', involved.
David
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Dear Pat & Logistical 1,
Count me in as well if you need another cook to make the stew
Dan C.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Before TV,computers, & I=phones it was quite easy to get children interested in stamps. Back in the 1930's, stamp collecting was the "in" thing, and most of us had collections. Woolworth 5 & 10 sold stamps in approval books, and you could pick what you wanted at a few cents each, and they also sold packets and supplies. We used tmall groups to buy our stamps, and then trade with each other when we got home.
I tried to get my kids interested, but to no avail, and now the same with my grand kids. There is just too much going on in the world to keep their interest, and stamps is not one of them.
One thing I used to do at Halloween trick or treat, is give small bags of stamps away with the candy.
Richaard
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
My son always watches me working carefully with stamps and covers and he is convinced that my collection is dearer to me than him!! I got him intersted in stamps by letting him find a few quiz answers in catalogs, now whenever he gets a school project he gets out the Scott 1999 set and start going over them and other philatelic books that I have to find out the answers or to build up a presentation. Believe me he has done some wonderful presentations already but those were kept by his school on display - one was on Indian dresses, another was on fruit bearing large trees another I remember was on Space achievements.
He is respectful of stamps and philately because of the information and knowledge he can get (I have restricted his PC use and his online time! Yes we can still dominate our children in India!!) I am hopeful that my collection will not get wasted.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Like Saleem's son, my daughter comes down to my study occasionally and helps me find stamps in the catalogue. She was ecstatic when she found an illustration matching the Turkish stamp i was trying to ID. She's far more visually acute than I am, even when my vision was clearer.
Some of you already know her, having sent her post cards from your hometowns. And Saleem was kind enough to send me a beautifully garbed doll for one of her projects.
Who knows if it will stick long term, but we can't worry about that; all we can do is allow for the possibility of positive associations and hope that, at some later date, that's what they remember when they pick up a colorful envelope and think about entering the hobby. After all, few of us continued, uninterrupted from our childhood through our dotage.
David
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Immediate Past President - West Essex Philatelic Society www.wepsonline.org
23 Jan 2013
01:32:21pm
re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
I have spoken at my children's school at least once a year since 2007 about stamp collecting. I always talk about general stamp collecting and I find out what they are learning about in class and then try to incorporate that into my discussion. One day I was there on UN Day, so I talked about UN Stamps. Another day I came in on Lincoln's Birthday and showed them a bunch of Lincoln stamps and stamps that related to the civil war. I also brought in Black History stamps because it was February. One year they were studying the American Revolution. I enjoyed this one because I started collecting around the time of the Bicentennial, so I got to show them all the stamps issued around the Bicentennial. I always gave out an envelope of used Worldwide Stamps and common First Day Covers and I would have a lottery for a few sheets of kid friendly stamps such as the Star Wars, Comic Book, Baseball Players etc. I would put notes to the parents if their children were interested to contact me, and I would point them in the right direction to get started. Never got a call.
Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity go do one this year. My job is not as flexible as it was in the past. I'm hoping I can find a free day where school is open.
Our school also has an afternoon program called the Discovery Series. Back when my job had more flexible hours, I had created an outline for a Stamp Collecting program. I submitted it, and got some resistance from the person who runs the program. She thought it wouldn't be interesting enough. I got another parent to talk to her, so she accepted it but we couldn't get enough kids to sign up. You had to have at least 5 and 3 had signed up.
Our stamp club contacted the local Boy Scouts. We just wanted to be able to come into one of their meetings and talk about collecting but they did not seem all that interested. They offered us to be a mentor for the Stamp Collecting Badge, but I'm not really up for doing that because you would kind of be on call for the whole region not just for that troop. We were hoping to do something much less formal and talk to the group and not just individuals.
With all this, my kids never showed any interest in collecting. It is definitely and uphill battle but battle we must.
Bob
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It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. - Aristotle Onassis
23 Jan 2013
07:51:02pm
re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Obviously many members have experience with involving kids and do a great job of it. I think Pat has a fabulous grasp on this and I was very impressed by the album pages he makes that educate his kids as well as allow them to have fun with their stamps. Anytime you want to share more of your album pages, Pat, I'd love to see them!
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
So I went through my stuff to see what I have. We should all see what we have as well and figure out whether it would be useful for this section. Most of the things I have gathered can work for adults as well, but I tried to gear it down to kid friendly type material.
_ Slideshow Introducing Stamp Collecting by me
_ Slideshow Introducing Stamp collecting by BobStamp
_ Help IDing Difficult Modern Stamps
_ 2897~3133 - Flag Over Porch by Mystic
_ 4101-4116 - Snowflakes by me
_ 4125-4128 - Liberty Bell Forever by Mystic
_ 4486-4491&4559-4564 - Lady Liberty & Flag by me
_ 4629-4648 - Four Flags by me
_ American Design Series by me
_ Introduction To Stamps by Mary H. Lawson, National Postal Museum
_ Aerograms by Wikipedia
_ Stamp Classification by me with lots of help from SOR
_ Descriptive Terms FAQ by SOR
_ Hidden Images in United States Stamps by me
_ How Postage Stamps Are Made by Unknown
_ How To Involve A Youngster by David Teisler (WHO? LOL.)
_ Stamp Collecting For Kids from http://www.2-clicks-stamps.com/article/stamp-collecting-for-kids.html
Some of this stuff we would either need to get permission to reproduce or rewrite it enough to utilize the information. Some of this stuff could actually be cross-referenced into the more mature audience library as well. Not sure why you couldn't have the same article be linked by both libraries. What else do we have?
---Pat
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Pat,
You must get in touch with Ralph to see if these can be archived for our members perhaps in the article section, or in another category.Nice work.
Dan C.
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It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. - Aristotle Onassis
24 Jan 2013
07:51:20pm
re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Pat,
I would be interested in reading the Hidden Images in United States Stamps. I collect worldwide but by far my largest collection is US and US Back of Book. Do you think it will be on SOR soon?
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
At http://www.spellman.org/ you'll find wonderful info about a fantastic place to go yourself, or with kids/grandkids/scout groups, etc to get them interested in stamp collecting. The Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History in Weston, Massachusetts (not far from Boston) is one of only two such museums in the country, the other being in Washington, DC!
Their monthly Family Activity Day is particularly fun and "inviting". They are theme-based with hands-on projects and lots of stamps take-aways available. Education director, Henry Lukas (a former school principal), and his team of volunteers, do an outstanding job!
The museum maintains a busy schedule of fascinating presenters, some weekends,some nights, throughout the year.
For the very serious philatelist, their resource library is very extensive, and even the non-philatelists will enjoy the Museum's popular gift shop. The museum, whose interetsing history is worth checking out, also serves as an official post office for mailing.
Check their website to see their hours "open" before visiting as it is not a 9 to 5 operation...but well worth the trip!
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
I have brought this idea up in the past and I am not sure this is a direction we would want to consider but there are lots of interesting articles on the web for beginning and seasoned collectors. I think it would be much simpler to create a library of links to the articles with a brief summary explaining the article or page content. Obviously the library would need a librarian to delete the expired links and add new links to the library. Permission isn't needed to link to an article and if the author updates his article we don't have to.
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Dogs are my favorite people. I hang with this one as often as I can.
12 Feb 2013
10:41:37am
re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
Tell them that it will get them high and not to do it.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
This wasn't my idea, but I always have thought it was a good one. The wife of a stamp dealer I knew, used to make up little packets with 10 to 15 bright colourful topical stamps, her husband's business card, and a card printed up with the location, date, etc of the local stamp club.
Everytime she was in the grocery store, or anywhere there were kids, (WITH THEIR PARENTS) she would ask permission to give the kids a packet of stamps. She would tell them she was with the local stamp club, and it was a good hobby for everyone, including kids. She also personally invited them to come to the club, and bring the stamp packet with them, to receive another larger packet of stamps from her.
She didn't use expensive stamps, knowing that most of them would eventually if not before they even left the store, end up in the trash, but she did manage to get a few kids and some parents with and without their kids to come to the club over the years. Some became members. Others just came once to see what was going on, and never came back, but it helped get a few kids started and helped to draw new members to their club.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
I've found that my kids will take an interest if I spend the time with them on their stamps. That means sacrifice on my part, and barely getting anything done for myself. Also, limiting time on computers/TV does it as well.
I will often trade doing one indoor activity of their choice, maybe a Pokemon match or a soccer match on the Wii, provided they do another activity of my choice, such as work on the stamp collection or play a more traditional board game.
Finally, drawing on my own experience as a child, I try to make the hobby less frustrating. I always was discouraged having basically worthless stamps and crummy starter albums and little direction from my parents. It cost me a good bit of money, but I made sure my son had a decent US album, more or less complete to 2000. I also helped him purchase three partially filled world wide albums from auction or dealers and the material necessary to create his own worldwide albums, which includes the Steiner pages and really nice archival quality paper. It cost a pretty penny, but he is interested. No frustration from having a stamp and not having a space in an album to place it, which for me was a key source of frustration as a kid, because I was a compulsive space filler.
But truthfully, there are so many interesting things children can do today that you can't expect them to devote hours and hours to the hobby. A few hours here and there working on something that will still have value when they are older is what I am betting will do the trick.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
HungaryForYou...... Sounds like you are doing a great job getting your kids interested. Keep up the good work. It's nice to see that you have encouraged world wide too.
One way to really discourage a kid from collecting is to try and tell them what to collect. We had a man bring his grandson to the club a few years ago. NOTHING was good enough for the man. The boy, around 10 years old, was actually really interested in collecting. No matter what he asked for if it was a topical, he wasn't allowed to have it. He asked about a couple of different countries, and he was told no. The only thing his grandfather wanted him to have was MNH Canada. Then it had to be in 100% perfect condition.
So what was the point of him getting his grandson to collect? The poor little guy was so bored and unhappy. They never came back to the club. I can't imagine that he ever got back to even trying to collect.
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re: How do you try to get Kids interested in Collecting?
I thought about this topic a bit after I posted and asked myself why my son has an interest in collecting stamps. There are 2 key reasons:
1. He likes to collect, especially to fill spaces in a book. He has in the past with soccer and football cards. He also buys Pokemon cards, but mainly to play the game.
2. He likes anything that is like a treasure hunt. The older the stamp, the more excited he gets, even though they may not really be worth all that much. I try not to discourage the viewpoint of stamp collecting as an investment or treasure hunt because I know that is one of the main draws for him.
It doesn't hurt that I have an nearly endless stream of US duplicates to throw at him and plenty of worldwide as well.
So to generalize a bit, I would wager that stamp collecting can be interesting to kids 12 and under provided:
* They are mostly doing busy/active work, mainly putting stamps in albums, sorting etc., or searching for treasures. But, I know I my son would lose interest in visiting museums, reading about stamps, listening to lectures, or doing laborious tasks. So keep it light and active.
* They think their collection is worth something or might be worth something some day.
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