Ready to get your kids interested in a hobby that they might continue for life?

• Begin with a starter album and a bunch of stamps.
• Start with an album of your own country so that they can find plenty of new stamps in the incoming mail; or, with a topical area the child likes apart from stamps.
• Go into sorting stamps, putting the stamps on an album page, and so on.

From the beginning, share with the children what the designs on the stamps mean: who the people or places are and why they're being honored. Make the stamps come alive. Also, match stamps with other interests the child may have: a favorite sport, animal, or place they may have visited or want to visit. With about 450,000 different stamps issued since 1840, you and your child have much to choose from.