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I'm hoping some of you would be willing to discuss your success (or failure) with getting young children interested in stamps. I have a boy that'll be 4yrs old in October. Any advice?

Probably a bit young yet, a four year old's attention span is usually not quite ready for stamps. If you are a collector, then encourage him to watch you and try to use colorful fun stamps with characters he might recognize like the Simpson's and the Pixar stamps. Try to tie them into his day to day activities. FUN is the key. I volunteer with a youth group once a month, but they are all 10-15.

I don't know if the results will be lasting, but I had some success giving my son a bunch of stamps to sort through. I left him to have a look by himself and he started sorting out all the ones with pictures of animals on them.

I gave him an album and he put them in there - all the birds together etc.

Then I gave him an old simplified catalogue (lots of pictures). He had some fun looking through there and finding the ones that matched the stamps in his album.

The current discussions are about completing the sets - for example so he has all the frog stamps that are shown together in the catalogue.

Previously I had tried sitting him down and showing him my stamps - then trying to explain why they were interesting. This was definitely the wrong approach. They need to discover things for themselves.

Good luck.

What worked with my Son is getting Stamps that include the things he likes. Planes, Trains & Automobiles. He was 6 when he started and now has an almost obsessive craving for Machins. He is also now very interested in Kings and Queens.

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"Life is a tough Teacher, it gives you the test first and the lesson later"
Anonymous

With my 3 grandchildren (youngest was 6 or 7) I let them pick out a packet of stamps each and gave them each a binder, hagner sheets, kids scissors, magnifying glass and tongs. They enjoyed sorting them any which way they wanted.

Also, I gave them 2 small bowls of water (warm & cool) and a bunch of Canadian defines and taught them how to soak & dry stamps.

When they lived around the corner from me we would have "Stamp Day".

I did something similar for my 6 yr old neighbour as well. He now has several themed collections that he and his Mum & Grandmother helped to buy. I have already promised him another soaking day or two when the weather is good. (no wind as we do it in the backyard.)

They all seemed to enjoy the soaking the most with the organizing of the stamps coming in a close 2nd.

I just enjoyed being with them and hope they will continue the collecting on their own as they grow older.

I agree, age 4 is a tough sell. Maybe you could start out with soaking. He might enjoy tossing them into the water and then fishing them out when they've come off paper. Watching you enjoy your collection might pique his curiosity, but it being, by nature, such a sedentary activity, it might not hold his attention for long.

I have the same challenge with my 9 Y/O daughter, who enjoys the soaking aspect. I gave her a Traveler album and she hinged a few stamps on a couple of occasions, but then lost interest. She still likes helping with soaking, and my hope is that maybe I can reel her in, little by little.

Good luck, it will certainly be a challenge for you. The intro thread here is filled with collectors who returned to the hobby later in life, myself being one of them.
Erik

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"Me fail English? That's unpossible."
—Sir Ralph Wiggum

For me, I interest in stamps grew out of an interested in maps, geography and different places. This was emphasized by whenever we were taking a trip (even a driving trip to another place), we would look at a map, and mark out the route.

I Loved looking at maps and imagining what other places were like.

Collecting stamps was a natural extension to this. Collecting stamps allowed me to "travel when I am not travelling"

My point? It might be better to introduce a type of stamp collecting based on an interest the kid already has.

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Collector of Stamps and Banknotes from Countries that no longer Exist
http://www.DCStamps.com

time2fish,

There is more advice at this link.

Kids and stamp collecting

When I was a kid my brother & I had an old Australian Stamp Catalog of some kind and a bunch of stamps, and we'd spend ages going through finding out all of the 'valuable' ones (so we could sell them for toys etc). I remember for years mistaking a KGV Head 4d Olive for a 4d Lemon and saying 'We've got a $25 stamp !'

Darrin.

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Visit my Website - http://WWW.DJMSTAMPS.COM for Australia & World Stamps, Collections and Accessories

I would suggest perhaps either Thematics or colorful, Modern Stamps.

I know sometimes modern stamps can be hard to come by on the mail that comes in the door, but people like myself and others on this site always have stocks of cheaper Aussie Kiloware, full of heaps of bright, colorful, modern stamps - perfect for a "whole country" collection or a thematic collection.

Speaking only about Australia, but over the last 10 years there are plenty of topics and plenty of material to keep younger hobbyists amused from dinosaurs to famous Australians, Sports, AFL/Rugby/Skiing, Movies & Music, Plants, Animals, Sea Life the list goes on.......

At the end of the day, you have to make it fun. Not many youngsters are into perforations, hinges & watermarks. Keep it fresh and fun, a few decent stockbooks and for between $50 & less than $100 (and that includes a GOOD stockbook like Lighthouse or Prinz not a gaudy el-cheapo) younger collectors starting out have a few hours enjoyment for those times when they are "a bit bored" or when its soaking wet outside and nothing to do.

Beats watching TV.

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Warm Regards, Rob
If you have time, please visit my blog: http://sparetimecollector.blogspot.com/

And to add to Rob's Post, if you can't find modern attractive stamps used, then why not CTO?

Kids love these as the are bright, attractive, clean and have full gum. Crisp, clear, machine postmarks.

I sell them in packs of 600 mixed for $A50 FREE POST within Australia.

Sample scans follow







Every pack contains low values, high values, pairs, strips, blocks, reprints, AAT issues and stamps from Cocos Keeling Islands - There is duplicates in these packs, but a good variety.

A superb, and affordable way to encourage youngsters!

Contains heaps of attractive, topical stamps.

A lot of the stamps in these you rarely see commercially used anyway, often MUH or CTO is the only way they can be obtained.

They are priced at about 8 CENTS a stamp - and there is NO peel and stick.

Buy these stamps individually from a dealer and you'd often be paying 50c-$1 or more for each stamp!

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=31477

CTO only just occured to me after I posted; what another great idea!

Then of course there is my own areas of collecting in addition to Australia & Modern Australia I collect primarily; AAT, Christmas Island & Cocos (Keeling) Island - LOTS of COLORFUL and attractive stamps from Christmas & Cocos.

There are plenty of other parts of the world that issue attractive stamps like those issued by our offshore territories, with plenty of excellent thematic potential as well!

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Warm Regards, Rob
If you have time, please visit my blog: http://sparetimecollector.blogspot.com/

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island stamps really are amazing, even someone who doesn't like stamps would find these colourful and attractive!

I appreciate all the replies. I definitely agree that 4 years old is a bit early. I love fly fishing, especially with two-handed Spey rods, and while I have been working with him on casting, it's all been with a piece of bamboo cut from the neighbor's yard with a piece of fly line tied to it. Once he has altogether stopped whacking things with it and can keep it off the ground, he'll graduate to an actual rod. I'd imagined that there might be some "first steps" with introducing the world of stamps, and I believe I've been given some great advice. I've got some colorful, modern stamps. We may try some sorting this weekend...

Thanks

Good point.

Think about Social Studies class at primary school. Instead of the teacher standing there talk talk talk delivering a lesson, give the students stuff to play with. A bag of leaves to identify the trees they came from; some harmless materials they can do a science experiment with--ie. the ever-popular 'lava' of baking soda and vinegar. Or just a scavenger hunt--they have a list of items they have to collect.

Youngsters like to be active; to have variety in their activities; to have colour. When teaching students around 4-years-old, teachers generally budget 10mins per activity...so sing a song for 10, then read a book, then do some colouring.

Thematics are usually the best way to get youngsters into stamps. They like cars? Give them a packet of car stamps. Horses, cats, space, fish...Eastern Europe and other parts of the world churned out enough CTO wallpaper that you can pick up packets for just a few dollars, and if the stamps get damaged (ie. the youngster 'mounts' them in an album with a gluestick) its no loss.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Well, we spent some time with the stamps last night and I'd say it went pretty well. I'd found a sealed pack of 1000 stamps from around the world unpacking boxes last week, mostly from the late 60's very early 70's. We (I) sat down to sort it and immediately came across a Ludwig Von Beethoven stamp. I gave him a brief rundown on who Beethoven was and queued up Symphony #9 on YouTube, at which point he told me that in his Charlie Brown video, Schroeder plays Beethoven on the piano. By the time I was done sorting through the pack, we'd found two more Beethoven stamps and a variety of stamps featuring rocket ships and planes, all of which he was happy to slip into the little pockets of his stock notebook. As I was writing this, he actually asked if we could do stamps again this morning, so his first impression, at least, seems to have been a positive one. Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

Here's another observation from someone in the same boat: My son is way more interested in volume than scarcity. He is way more impressed with " I got this whole box of stamps for $100 - see what you can find" than "I paid $200 for this stamp- don't touch it".

Makes sense.

Give a 5 year old a 5/- Bridge and they most likely won't care about it or its value.

Give them a few kilo's of modern colourful stamps on paper and they'll be curious to sort them all.

My first 3 children I tried the "show them the stamps and talk to them about what interests me" approach which didn't work.

The 4th child, who is now 6, is focussed on what interests him (Dinosaurs, Sharks, Wild Animals) and allowed him to scour my stamps for ones he liked- as others have said, a much better approach and it allows him to develop naturally. I started with him at 4 years old and 2 years later he still has the interest and now wants a new stock book for his expanding collection.

Let him look on ebay (with your supervision) and the internet for good thematic websites- he will grow up in an electronic age so showing him the benefits of the internet now is a really positive.

And even better, I have permission from "she who must be obeyed" to take him with me to the next local stamp auction where he can bid on some thematic lots.

In summary, I completely agree with those that say allow his enthusiasm to be focussed on what he likes and what interests him generally rather than what we (as adults) would like him to collect.