Does Anyone Have Kids Who Collect Stamps?

Collecting stamps in the US seems to be considered a "geeky" hobby by young folks infatuated with the electronic technological wizardry of today. I was wondering if anyone has managed to get any of their young ones seriously interested in the hobby.


-IBFS

Seriously interested? Not yet. I'm working with my Grand Daughter, but this will take some time. I've found that interest in stamps, at least in my family, tends to skip a generation. My Grand Mother was the great collector, then totally skipped her two sons. My three daughters are less than enthusiastic, at this point, but mostly because they are busy with other activities. Check with me again in about 20 years.

I'm working on my 10 year old son Michael. He likes looking at them, asks questions, but hard to pry him away from Baseball.. season's over soon, so better chance to really ingrain it then :)

I do and thanks to some very good and gracious members here for sending her some great stamps when she started back in 2008. She was 12 at the time and is now 17. She has never stopped though sports and boys are taking more of her time.

I can't thank those that sent her tons of stamps for free how thankful I am but the good news is that she is still as active now as she was then.

She is a stamp collector brought to life from the generosity of several SCF members who took her under their wings. They might be happy to know that Katelyn is still a strong collector.

Had a strange one the other night. My 22 year old daughter wouldn't know what a stamp is. For the past 15 years I have not used a stamp album for newer stamps. I just put them in a binder with plastic pages and flip it like a book. So last night I added a few more and was going through the binders.

She said wow where did you get these? She took some time to look through all of the binders then asked this question.

Dad can I have these when you die?
I'm smiled and said yes but it may be a long time yet. I was just happy to know that the work I have put into my collection will remain in the family and not broken up and sold or tossed in the trash.

I think I said in another thread, not sure which one, that I hoped to get my grand kids involved in some way over Christmas, by purchasing an album for each, along with a "starter collection" of stamps. Not sure how it will go, but if just one out of the 7 gets involved, it will be worth it, and that's the one who will inherit my collection!

We gave a album and Ziploc full of stamps to a 12 year old nephew for Christmas. He started putting the stamps into the book almost immediately, giving up the coveted family iPad to his sister and only reluctantly opening other gifts. Six months later, he came to another event carrying the USPS stamp collector magazine/sales brochure (not sure what it's called), and had his nose in it the whole time. Of course, he may not be a typical kid - he has memorized pi to something like 50 digits.

Bought albums for my 2 kids for Christmas several years ago. They are sitting in the closet. Neither have any interest...

My son is interested and sees the value of such a hobby. Every so often he breaks out the stamps and the US album or Steiner pages we've printed so far and adds to them. He has a Liberty US stamp album and a CD of Steiner pages for the rest of the world.
He doesn't have a lot of time though, which is the main problem. I think he likes to work on stamps while I am doing the same...its more fun for him to have a partner in crime.

My daughter is 6, so not yet at the age where she is too worried about what is "geeky", thank goodness!

We have started a collection, in a stock book. Its a child-friendly stock book with a bright cover of colourful stamps of the world.

We have started country by country, choosing countries with which we have a connection to do first. For each country, I look out some stamps from my own ww collection and/or dupes. Then we make a page up in the stock book, aiming for each country to have a postcard or cover, a stamp showing its flag, and one showing its king/queen or president, then a representative mix of general stamps.

She has an enquiring mind, and loves to learn, especially about the flora and fauna of each country. But she is only six, and her attention span is short.

Her school does a lot of topic-based learning, so I try to find a few stamps for her to take for "show and tell" on whatever topic they are studying. At the moment they are learning about Malawi, and as my collection yielded very little, I took a quick look at ebay and spent a few pounds on an album page of stamps and a couple of wildlife minisheets.

I think the key is to go with their interests and keep it relevent to them. Most of us began collecting as kids, I'm sure we can remember the excitement of filling our albums with tiny pictures - the learning came later.

The last thing I want is for it to become a chore or another homework type task she feels she has to do.

We have a little side collection going of stamps and covers with her name on. A very kind SCF member also sent her some postcards of his hometown of Charlotte, which she absolutely loved! I will be searching for something from the Queen Charlotte Islands for a Christmas present, I think!

My kids will sometimes politely engage me in a conversation about stamps. They are more interested in what prensentation or exhibit that I may be working on than the stamps themselves. When I explain the history behind something there is a dim glimmer of interest, but like I said they are being polite. They are concerned about what to do with all of this crap when I am gone.

Several years ago my daughter and son thought that they would be interested.
I gave my daughter my "old" Minkus album and bought my son a "new" Harris Freedom.
Their interest faded...I still have both collections and sometimes still add to them "just in case".

stampgal...I think you are on the right track! In my opinion,this seems to be the best way to bring a young child into this great hobby! Larry

I just picked up a (very poor) piece that may help get my daughter interested. Her nickname for the family dog is "Buddha". This is the closest I could find, but should get a big smile out of her anyway.

I've got four (soon five) kids, and all have varying interest on stamps. I doubt none of them will ever become 'stamp nuts' like me, but life is long and at least they've been exposed to this fabulous hobby at early age.

-k-