Special Delivery
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Those long holiday lines at the post office making you feel a bit like going postal? Try these tricks.
- Keep your child occupied by handing him emptied envelopes or adhesive backings to throw away. To keep him busier longer, cheat and tear them into pieces first.
- Play I Spy using only items specific to the post office — logos, signs, employees, FBI Most Wanted posters.
- Show your child the different sized mailing boxes and ask her to think of one object that will fit perfectly in each. (A sibling doesn't count.)
- Bring an addressed postcard and have your child write herself a note or draw a picture, then slide it through the mail slot. Tell her she'll see it again soon. Or bring two postcards, have her mail them to two relatives, and see which arrives first.
- If your post office is small enough and you're comfortable, send him off to investi-gate the designs on stamps displayed nearby. Tell him you'll want a report on his favorites.
Back at Home
Kids can design their own stationery at postalmuseum.si.edu and their own stamps at zazzle.com.
Fun Fact
An undersea post office was established in 1939 as part of a scientific facility on the seabed off the Bahamas. Mail was stamped with an oval postmark inscribed "SEAFLOOR/BAHAMAS."
