Postcrossing is a great educational hobby for your child.
Answer:
I know what you’re thinking: “Postcrossing for children?! What even is that?”
Well, it’s basically a social experiment. We find people all over the world and let them send postcards to their pen pals kids in specific countries.
The pen pals can be any age and from any country, but they have to live within the same geographical region as the children we send cards to (e.g., Canada).
What makes this project really unique?
Answer: It gives children a say in how they make friendship connections! They get to send postcards and pick out what they want their new friendships to be like.
In addition to a hobby, it is also an excellent opportunity to learn a language.
Postcrossing is a fascinating activity that is popular all over the world. People from different countries exchange postcards, envelopes in which they put postcards and surprises.
This envelope came from France. Camille met all my needs, namely postcards of theater, nature, a black and white postcard including a poster of the French national soccer team and a number of other surprises.
Children like it no less than adults. First, you need to register on the site and fill out a profile.
The official language on the site and in correspondence is English. If your child is already learning English, the new hobby will help practice what they have learned.
If not yet, you will have to help sign postcards and read the text on your kids received. Perhaps this will help your child become interested in learning other foreign languages.
Today’s children don’t have idea how regular mail works, not e-mail, stamps, and where to glue stamps. They don’t know the feeling of anticipation when you open the mailbox and there’s a surprise waiting for you.
There is so much to learn about life in other countries, children, their hobbies and interests! After receiving a postcard from a new country, it is fascinating to look for the country on the map or globe with your parents, read about it on Wikipedia or other sources.
There are quite a few children’s profiles on the postcrossing site. Some of them are created by moms for their very young children to build a collection for them.
The other part is personal profiles created with the help of grandparents and moms and dads.
Children ages four, five and up enjoy picking up cards to send, gluing stamps and stickers, decorating them with stamps or drawings.
When my niece was 8 years old, she started to sign postcards, glue stickers and different appliques on postcards. She really liked this idea.
After a few years she registered her own profile and started exchanging postcards.
When we get together on various holidays, we always show each other postcards.
I think Postcrossing for children is important. It can teach the child the old ways of send/receiving mails, because children nowadays only know how to use e-mails, online messaging, and texting. I would recommend this activity to my 7-year old daughter, but of course, I will still guide her.
That’s why my nephews are also passionate about exchanging postcards around the world. It’s their new hobby now.
This article is meaningful. I really love reading articles about Postcards and Their importance in developing children’s communication skills. As I read, I realized that this will help your child become interested in learning other foreign languages which is helpful in expanding the languages. Thanks for enlightening my mind about this topic. I also appreciated the guidelines indicated above. Thanks
Always a pleasure to see you on our site, Hector.
I see my child as she grow old very interested about the world, countries and also countries different languages. S he always ask me what is the capital city of this country andits native language. And i figure it out she knew more a lot i was impress. So i buy her postcards with different countries on it so she could learn more.
I’m very glad to hear about it, Donna.
In fact, a lot of kids are into getting postcards through the postcrossing system. I often come across profiles of people who say, “I am a mother of 2 children, please sign a postcard for my children.” That’s so cute.
Another big plus is that it’s really a good way to learn geography and learn new things about countries and cities. Travel is wonderful!