Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Hi All,

Just wanted to share a quick story.

My return to stamp collecting came when I was trying to get my son interested. He didn't take it up, but I got hooked again on my childhood hobby.

Last week I bought a box of old albums from another member here with the intention of trying again with my son. There are lots of international stamps in there which I know nothing about. I thought that we could sort through them together and maybe we would both learn something.

Yesterday I gave him the first of the albums to have a look through, but instead of trying to show him things I just left it to him to have a look on his own. He has now extracted all the stamps with animals on them and is trying to organize those into some sort of order.

I am giving him encouragement from a distance and have told him to ask me if he has any questions. If I don't know the answer, I'll ask the rest of you.

We could have another collector in the making.

A nice story! I'm starting this way with my young daughter. She's always been a Disney fan, so when we found a small collection at the flea market, it became hers to build and develop. I too am hoping to create a new member of the stamp-collecting world. Good luck to your son! Stamps beat the heck out of school when it comes to learning things!

Caddyman,

That's fantastic.
Good strategy by letting him do his own thing. Just let him explore and if he has questions he will come to you.

I put all my stamps on the dining table to sort through while my kids are watching tv. I have 2 out of 6 of them interested enough that I have given them their own 'collection' to sort through. I found that if I ask them to join in they wont but if I sit there and ooh and ahh occasionally they will come over and see what i'm doing. Heres hoping that one day all of them will collect!

I loved the various approaches shared here to encourage kids to take up the hobby, smart ploys

What got me going more than anything while I was a kid is that both my brothers were into it too, along with me. Also, a few friends (peer group) pursuing the same hobby made it all the more attractive for me

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Learning by watching, listening, then becoming involved is much more successful than learning by being told.

Tell me, I forget.

Show me, I might remember.

Involve me, I learn and understand.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Muruk, spot on with the philosophy.

Caddyman, I too got back into stamps as part of a process of trying to get my boy involved in stamp collecting. I failed, he got interested in flying instead..which believe me is a far more expensive proposition.

Please let us know how the boy gets on..personally I have heaps of dog related stamps I'm happy to give him if he is truly "hooked." We need to catch 'em young...

On a related topic, I just had a quick look around in the fora, wondering if anything had every been posted about starting/running a school stamp club, but didn't see anything.

I've been sort of mulling that thought around in my head...any suggestions or places/websites etc. to go look? Anyone?

Thanks!

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Carmen - Collecting: Canada, Cats, Religion, Royalty, Stamps on Stamps... and worldwide, quite frankly!

Thanks SMSSLT. I will update as he makes any progress. My other son (5 years old) has now asked for an album too. Although I think it's probably just because his brother has one and he doesn't want to miss out.

At this early stage I would not accept any free stamps for him. I think he would need to show some commitment to his collection over a period of months before this would be reasonable. I have quite a pile for him to work through as it is.

It is indeed a difficult thing to get a young person interested for collecting stamps. I'm for certain the youngest person who is visiting the local stamp club once a month and every time I come there no one is younger then myself (all 65+). In the hope to interest people, I set up some 'stamp-swapping days' on my secondary school (I'm 17) two years ago. Sadly enough, nobody appeared on these days except my history teacher. But there is still hope: the internet. I think because of this sort of websites kids and other young people are attracted to the philately, so maybe the 21 first century isn't the end of stamp collectors at all.

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HB
Carpe Diem

Ill share my story haha

I started stamp collecting when i was around 14 years old when i bought these old US stamps from a garage sale. they were hinged and in these envelopes. I bought a few of those stamps and that was my collection for a year. I then was looking on the computer and found the website Postcrossing. (Where you swap postcards) and i swapped postcards for a while I found their forum and traded alot of stuff. Thats when i got hooked

I then got a few free stamps that were donated by a stamp club. That helped my stamp collection grow. i bought a few stamps from people online. The online communities and i would put a 5 dollar bill in the mail for 100 -250 stamps used. By this time i was 15 years old.

I then begun my hiatus from stamp collecting because i was going to become an exchange Student to Thailand! I left for Thailand in August of 2011 and here i am today...17 years old... My last day of me being an exchange student ... I head back to the USA in 10 hours. BTW i am bringing a few stamps from Thailand to add to my personal collection

Cant wait to dig into my stamp collection

*****

And P.s. I am also bringing a few animal stamps to give to my sister She is 11 My mom told me she loves stamps like me and what would be a better way than to give her some Thai animal stamps from Thailand that i bought in Thailand!

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Collecting:
China, Taiwan, North Korea, Middle East... Or any new stamp that catches my eye.
and Collecting Fish, Birds, Large animals (ex: Elephants,OX,panda)