Postcard Exchange: Fun Addition To Our Middle School Geography Study

My daughter has started collecting postcards -

Some are from friends and some we exchanged with other homeschool families. A couple of my friends have asked their Facebook friends (Thanks Betsy & Laura Kay and their friends) to send her postcards & the response has been great!

Since our study in My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures starts with the United States she is trying to collect all 50 states right now. She loves getting mail and it's a fun way to learn about other states.

We joined a group on Facebook for homeschoolers who want to be involved with penpals, post card exchange, geo-cache swap, activity bag swap, flat traveler swap, birthday card exchange, and/or book exchanges. So far we are participating in the postcard exchange. Another Facebook group that we have joined is 50 States Postcard Exchange, admins maintain a list of participating families & you mail postcards to those you wish to exchange with.

We also signed-up at Post Crossing - http://www.postcrossing.com/ where you "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person in the world." We just started sending with Post Crossing so we haven't received any yet, but look forward to some international postcards.

One more related resource I found is Discover America Through Postcards  http://www.postcardsfrom.com/  -  they offer "live-at-the-scene" postcards from a 3 year RV journey. You can subscribe to have virtual postcards delivered to your email. There are maps and facts about each state along with travel tips too. This is an award winning educational site and a wonderful way to learn more about the 50 states. 

Check out our display!

I printed a US map from MegaMaps www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps.htm - I used the 2x2 (4 pages) size, cut it out and attached it to a foam board that I covered in gift wrap. Now Lindsey has a fun way to track where her postcards come from :) Best of all it was FREE! The maps are free to print and I already had the foam board and the gift wrap. If you have the room to display it, you can print larger sizes (up to 8x8, 64 pages). They print on regular printer paper and tile to fit together. There are 11 different MegaMaps collections including world maps and maps of other countries.

Lindsey labeled all the states on her map with their postal abbreviations and colors the states in with colored pencils as we receive postcards from each state. She can't wait to check the mail everyday to see if there are any postcards to add to her project.

One thing I didn't expect -

It has been difficult to find postcards in our area. We've only been able to find them at one country store about 10 miles from us. None of our downtown shops or local retail stores carry them. The country store that does carry them only has a few to choose from, so we are planning to create our own & have some printed up.

After collecting all 50 states we move on to other countries as we study world geography. I'll post updates as the postcard collection grows & will try to add a gallery of postcards we've received in the near future so follow along to see Lindsey's collection. Thanks to everyone who sent postcards!!

Does your family exchange postcards? If so please comment below about your collecting, how you display them, or any tips you want to share.