Is there any mail for me, mom?

- The Province

What is your business? I have a mail-subscription service for kids. I mail fun, educational, custom-designed collector’s cards to my subscribers every week. They are postcard-sized and come in a colourful envelope. Each card has an image from one of 12 categories and on the back is information about that image. Children also receive a specially designed activity sheet with their card.

How did you get started? I’m a stay-at-home mom and I homeschool my two kids. Every day when we go to the mailbox, I get asked, “Is there any mail for me?” Kids love getting mail, but most days, I’d have to say “No.” Then last year, I started thinking about how to satisfy this desire for mail, and the idea grew from there. I didn’t just want to send simple postcards to my kids — it had to be something of value and unique. I also wanted it to be fun and educational. I buy original images, then research and write about them on the back of the cards. The kids can keep them in a personalized collector’s box.

Who are your subscribers? The cards are meant to appeal to kids between ages 4 and about 10, but I do have some younger and older subscribers. I have kids from more than 50 countries on my list now, and hope to add more.

What do you like best about your business? I love the creative side to it, selecting the pictures from professional photographers, then researching the image to find interesting things about it. I’m constantly creating new cards and new activity sheets. It’s an awful lot of fun, and my eight-year-old daughter helps out with putting the stickers on the envelopes.

When do you find time to work? It takes a little time every day, and then we mail the cards once a week. I have to make the most of my time and still be available for my kids as much as before.

Future plans? The sky’s the limit on this. I would like to add educational forums to the website, recipes, printable sheets and organize a safe pen-pal system so kids can write good old-fashioned letters to pen pals all over the world. I’d also like to do a family trip across Canada and take pictures of things to create new postcards. We could hold literary fairs in the small towns and leave money behind for literacy programs. A lot of people complain that their kids aren’t reading — if they read a card a week, they’re reading and learning.