Post Office Delivery For Organizational Skills

 Teach your kids organizational skills by building a make-shift post office and have loads of fun in the meantime.

Save old envelopes, stickers, and cereal boxes
SAVE all of those return envelopes that are included with the myriad offers
we find in our mailbox everyday. Also, save the stickers that come on many mail offers. You know, the ones that say, “Yes” or “No” or “I accept” or the long distance offers that include permanent stickers to attach to your phone (the ones that never come off again). Last, save your empty rice, cereal, cracker, cake mix boxes and one large box (small appliance size). Don’t break them down.

Match your empty food boxes by size and stand them on one edge, right up against each other (imagine an apartment mail room). Depending on the number of boxes you have, make 2 or more rows. To keep them solid, you may want to hot glue them together and definitely try to locate this structure up against a wall.

Using a map or the inside map from a phone book, section off parts of the
country by location, zip code or some other means (for younger children use colors). Label your boxes (from the structure above) to match the sections you just created.

Retrieve your stash of envelopes and give a handful to each child along with some of those stickers you have been saving. For younger children who can’t yet read, you will have to color code the envelopes to match the colors of the slots in your box structure.

Brainstorm letter-writing ideas
Brainstorm some letter-writing ideas with the kids and make a list of the
results. Categories can include, family members, friends, teachers,
neighbors, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy...anyone your kids (and you) feel
comfortable enough to write a note, post card or letter to. They may even
want to write a consumer letter to an address found on one of the envelopes. Or send an article for inclusion to a magazine, a recipe or cartoon. How about an advertisement for one of their creations or a coloring/artwork entry? Don’t let their age be a barrier to the ideas or concepts that may be inspired by the actual envelopes.

Now its time to get down to the business of writing, folding their letters
and enclosing them into the envelopes, using the stickers as stamps. If the address on the envelope needs an alteration or two, black out the existing one with a marker and write above or below it. If you have some
inexpensive, plain envelopes, donate them to the cause. Do they know what information to put on each line? Are they missing a zip code? Will the zip code maps in the telephone book give them a hint?

While they are busy writing, cut double a letter sized slit into the bottom
of the larger box (small appliance size) and turn it upside down so the slit
is on the top. This is the official mailbox.

Take turns mailing, sorting, and delivering the mail
When all of the mail is ready to roll, let each child ‘mail’ their letters
in the official mailbox. Designate who will ‘pick up’ the mail, who will
sort the mail, who will place the mail into the right slots and, finally,
who will ‘deliver’ the mail. When the jobs are completed, the process can
begin anew with different roles assigned to different children.

The most talented mail handler gets to help mom in her home-based business (just joking)!

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