Hello From The Midwest!

Thought I might introduce myself a bit. I was asked to host a stamp collecting club for a few children in the area, they participate as part of extra curricular activities. Anyhow, I have not collected since I myself was in the 6th grade or so, which we will just say was a really long time ago! My daughter is 10 and participates. I remember that we used books and would find the stamp and mount it. that is the sum of my knowledge,lol. So, if anyone has any advice, good materials to look into, how to start them off etc.. I would so appreciate it. My daughter personally likes the world stamps and the entire issue was brought up because she received a few post cards from France and one airmail envelope from Europe from a French perfumery that set her interest on fire. So now, here I am, clueless and trying to understand this new language!

How many in your school club, and is there a local stamp club nearby that could donate materials and stamps to your group? If you are considering worldwide, and in bulk, maybe look into the Forum area named "Kiloware". Lots of stamps bought cheap, on paper, so you get to sharpen your soaking skills. Welcome.

Welcome
Stamp Smarter has some online stamp games and stamp music videos which might appeal to young collectors
http://stampsmarter.com/features/Home_games.html

http://www.stampsmarter.com/learnin...Topical.html

It also has some Features which can help less experinced hobbyists like an Illustrated Glossary to look up those strange terms
http://www.stampsmarter.com/Learnin...aryHome.html

And a 'How To' section
http://www.stampsmarter.com/learnin...e_HowTo.html

Don

Welcome!

I would like to add the APS has some resources: https://stamps.org/Young-Collector

Also the June 2017 edition of American Philatelist has "Engaging Youth in Philately" in the President's Column.

Thank you for the welcome. A interesting tidbit of info, I did not even stop to think about the fact that we have lived next to the postmasters widow for the last ten years, she is a nice elderly lady and I spoke with her about any information about the postal service she might be able to offer in speaking with the kids and she has albums of really neat stuff.

Also, once I got in to looking into 1st day covers for my daughter I remembered that my father, who passed when I was 16, was always given covers along with a patch and lapel pin for each launch of a shuttle back in the 80's. My mother has these in an album and is sending them to my daughter for her collection. I don't think they are worth a lot but they are certainly cool. We have 2 covers I think on hand here, nothing special, but if you like pics I can certainly try to learn how to upload them for this forum tonight. :)

lullasmomma: Many years ago (early 50s), knowing that I had become interested in stamps, my parents gave me a new stamp album & a box of stamps for Christmas. I still remember my mother helping me mount the stamps in my new album ... with scotch tape! Which, in case you didn't know, will ruin both the stamp & the album page. So one of my first lessons was to learn about stamp hinges. As a boy of 9 or 10 years, I naturally gravitated towards colorful & strangely shaped foreign stamps.
But as my collecting evolved, so too did my taste in stamps. I started to concentrate on U.S. stamps and the foreign stamps eventually got boxed up & were forgotten. Until recently. I learned that my cousin's 9-year old granddaughter had started a stamp collection. Recalling a box of unmounted foreign stamps from oh-so-many years ago, I went on a treasure hunt. Somewhat surprisingly, the box had survived multiple moves as well as indifferent storage. Within the box were around 5000 pre-1980 foreign stamps, still in good condition after almost 40 years. These went to the cousin's granddaughter. I have since stumbled across more foreign stamps, none of which are valuable. I initially planned to save them for my cousin, but I understand that her granddaughter is still inundated with what she has. In retrospect, I probably should have sent them to her in more digestible chunks, perhaps a few hundred at a time. But hindsight is always 20-20. So, if any child in your club might have an interest in these stamps, I would be glad to donate some of them.
If interested, contact a forum moderator to assist in any address exchange required for shipping the stamps.

Awesome to hear your story. I took my one and three year old daughters to a stamp show last year. It was hilarious and we only stayed for about an hour. Very welcoming ppl in the hobby but I couldn't take my eyes off them.