The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 51–53 · Part 1: Part First

19. The post office and postage stamps

Goal: Your child can talk about how a letter travels and writes answers about postage stamps.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗ 🖨 Copywork sheet

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
  • A stamped envelope or a few stamps, if you have them

What's in the book

Section 51 is a reading about the post office: mail bags, the postmaster, city mail carriers, and the old mail coach (with a picture). Section 52 is a conversation about your own post office; Section 53 asks for written answers about postage stamps.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Read about the post office

    Read Section 51 together. It describes the post office in 1900: mail bags off the train, the postman's whistle, the old mail coach.

    They tell us our friends' thoughts.

  2. Then and now

    Talk: What is the same today? What is different? (Mail still travels far. Trains and coaches have mostly given way to trucks and planes.)

  3. Conversation (Section 52)

    Ask the book's questions aloud and let your child answer in full sentences: Where is our post office? Who brings our mail? Did you ever mail a letter? How far would a letter to San Francisco travel?

  4. Write about stamps (Section 53)

    Look at a stamp together. Your child writes answers in whole sentences to the book's questions: What is a postage stamp? What does it cost? (Look at the stamp; prices change.) By whom are stamps made? What kinds have you seen? What is a cancelled stamp, and why is it cancelled?

  5. Check it gently

    Each answer should be a whole sentence that makes sense without the question. Read one aloud: "What does it cost?" "Sixty cents" is not a sentence; "A stamp for a letter costs ..." is. Your child fixes one or two.

  6. What a good result looks like

    Example (written for this guide, not from the book):

    A postage stamp is a small paper label that shows the postage has been paid. Stamps in our country are made for the Postal Service. A cancelled stamp has been marked by the post office so that it cannot be used again.

Afterwards

If you can, visit the post office and mail something together.

@teddyrookbook GitHub