Literacy Spot #14: Postcards

Children love receiving snail mail and it can provide a wonderful way to cultivate interest in reading and writing. Postcards are the perfect mail for young children as;

  • Their graphic nature stimulates interest in places others have visited or triggers memories of places they have been themselves,
  • The message space is short, perfect for little dialogues and attention spans,
  • Postcards provide one more way for children to learn that reading and writing are purposeful, meaningful activities.

Ways to Have Fun (and Learn) With Postcards

  • Next time you head off on a family holiday choose a few postcards of places you have visited to send to friends or family members. For pre-writers, transcribe their words onto the postcard for them. Early writers might like to sign off with their own name or write a short message.
  • Purchase an extra copy of each postcard to take home yourselves and use them to create a special book of memories. Record your child’s memories of each place you visited by transcribing their words.
  • If you (or your partner) are heading interstate or overseas for a business trip, take a moment to write and send a postcard to your child. Even if it arrives after you get home, they will still be excited to receive it.
  • If extended family members are heading overseas, ask them to send your child a postcard during their trip.
  • Search online to find a child friendly postcard swap (or set one up yourself) to participate in and have fun receiving mail from all over the world. You can see an example from 2010 here.
What is Childhood 101′s Literacy Spot? It is a weekly reminder of the importance of young children learning playfully as each week I share one idea for playing around with literacy, taken from my many years working as an early childhood teacher. Visit the previous Literacy Spot posts for more fun ideas for playing with literacy.

Related Posts

Parents of early and middle primary aged children, be sure to enter the Alphabet Soup magazine giveaway this week at Childhood 101.

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7 Comments

  1. Great post as always!! We always post these cards to ourselves and now my daughter writes her name too in them. Many times by the time we return home, they r in our mailbox and she gets excited to see them with her name:)

  2. My little ladies adore getting postcards in the mail. I have fond memories as a child collecting postcards from our family holidays and keeping them in a scrapbook.

    Lovely post…x

  3. Cute ideas here Christie. Oscar and Isabella love post cards and always leap at the mail box to see if there is anything for them.

    Hope you are well over there.

    xx Charlotta

  4. Margaret Elvis says:

    Christie I have hundreds of postcards from all over the world (nearly all mint) so perhaps I should begin sending one each week. Would Immy like that do you think?

  5. I love this idea because we are HUGE fans of postcards, but I just wanted to add that it doesn’t have to be limited to trips. I buy a tin of postcards every so often and then a few times a month I write sweet nothings to my daughter about a day we spent together at home as a family and I mail it to her. She’s too young to care right now, but it’s something that another family I know does with their older kids and it’s a fun way for them to all connect =)

  6. This is a great idea Christie, Thank you for sharing it. When we travel, I take a sheet of pre-printed address labels with me. When I send postcards, I know the address (I stick onto my postcard) is clear and correct. It is a time saver and ensures accuracy.

  7. My four year old son loves receiving postcards via postcrossing.

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