Collecting With Children
Thanks to Pamela Wiggins About.com
Childhood Collections
With some direction, an interesting book or two and a little cash, children of all ages can discover an educational, stimulating hobby through collecting. I'm quite sure my own affinity for collecting was learned from my mother, but sometimes it seems like I was born with the collecting gene.
Learning Through Collecting
In addition to having fun, as children grow groups of objects they learn to take care for them, display them, research them and budget their allowance to buy more.
Collections can mirror a child's personal interests or historical topics they learn about in school. Other times accumulations just kind of happen over time. Being naturally inquisitive, children tend to hone in on things adults may not notice.
Kids also learn a lot from shopping for antiques and collectibles since history abounds in all areas of collecting. Even as a child, reading my mother's Depression glass?/book taught me to recognize most of the popular patterns and colors, and I asked questions that helped me to learn about the Great Depression in the process. I still use this information as an adult as a writer, antiques dealer, appraiser and collector.
What to Know Before You Go Shopping with Children
There are some important factors to consider before taking a child into a shop filled with attractive, breakable items:
Children should never be allowed to roam freely, since many antiques aren't safe for kids to touch, and they may not even realize they're in the danger zone until it's too late.
Lots of older items are fragile, too. Touching them, even gingerly, can cause damage. Children need guidance to realize some playthings aren't really playthings anymore. This is true even at flea markets, which can be less intimidating but still hold valuable and dangerous items here and there.
Young ones can learn to respect other people's property when properly supervised in this type of environment, but it helps to gauge a child's maturity level helps before you go shopping.
If your collecting buddy generally behaves well and listens to instructions in other stores, chances are they'll do OK in an antique shop as well.
Always enforce the look but don’t touch rule when in an antiques mall. Make sure kids don’t run or roughhouse in antique stores for their own safety and the safety of others.
Use the shopping experience as a learning tool. Allow children to ask questions about unusual items, and teach them to respect other people’s property in the process.
Show children items you recognize from childhood or your grandmother’s house. Explain why they hold fond memories.
Encourage kids to start small, inexpensive collections. Teach them how to display and care for their collectibles when they get back home.
Let kids look through books on collectibles that interest them, or topics that interest you. Learn about antiques and collectibles together.
With a little thought and consideration, collecting adventures with children can be lots of fun.
Wasn't that a great article? Hope you enjoyed it.
Each month we will have a drawing for a free Gift Certificate from a participating A.G.C.A.P. Gold Star Dealer. All you have to do to enter is look for the code-word, this month it is "FIRECRACKER" and when you go into The Antique Gallery of Houston, go to the A.G.C.A.P. table located at the end of Aisle 2 North and fill out an entry form with the code word. Only 1 entry per person per month, offer extends only to customers of The Antique Gallery of Houston. Dealers and employees of The Antique Gallery of Houston are not eligible to win. Gift Certificate will be good only for purchases made in the A.G.C.A.P. Dealer's booth who donated the Gift Certificate Drawing will be held on the 1st day of the following month and winner will be notified by phone by the President of A.G.C.A.P.
Now for the A.G.C.A.P. Dealer of the Month for July. This month the honor goes to Joan Stepchincky. Joan has been a member of The Antique Gallery of Houston for 8 years. Joan has 2 booths. One is located on Aisle 3 North, Booth E-4, and the other one is located on Aisle 3 South, Booth O-1. Joan has many unique items, so make sure you stop by her booths and check them out! See below for a sneak peak!
TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT US!
Check back next month! and remember, OUT WITH THE NEW AND IN WITH THE OLD
BUY ANTIQUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It has been my observation that the etiquette of shopping is sorely missing from most children's education and parents have to take the blame on this one. Maybe I am showing "my age" when I suggest that as a child I was not allowed to pick up anything from a store shelf unless it was my final selection and I was ready to put my money down on it. It appears that most of today's children (and parents) view stores as a playground where children are free to try out whatever catches their eye. Large chain stores can afford to lose money on opened boxes, torn books, broken toys, and candy consumed without payment but small businesses cannot afford to raise prices to cover their losses. A resale business is even more competitive and tries to keep prices low for the consumer. Profits aside, children must be taught to respect the property of others and what better place to learn that lesson than during shopping. I agree that the Antique Gallery should be more like a museum where parents use it as an opportunity to tell stories about items they see like butter churns or spinning wheels or autographed baseballs and old coins. Never pass up an opportunity to add to a child's knowlege and character rather than give them permission to misbehave.
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