Amish Children

Postcard US-2233438 from Ohio shows a pair of Amish children going to school with their lunch boxes.

According to the Amish News, "these children’s days are not given shape by a line-up of soccer games, piano lessons, camp, or play groups. Instead, the morning sun, chore-time twice a day, and the coming of evening set a structure for their time. So, too, do the days of the week and the seasons. In this largely rural, soil-anchored world, life follows the lead of the weather and the promise of productive fields and gardens."

Since the birth rate is considerably higher than the death rate, the Amish population has actually been growing over the past several centuries.

Flower Market, Guangzhou, China

I just got this postcard from a private swap showing a pair of kids in traditional Chinese costume at a flower market in Guangzhou, China. The Guangzhou Flower Market, held annually during the Spring Festival, is a city-wide street fair where the public can purchase all kinds of flowering and decorative plants as part of the Chinese New Year celebration. As vendors literally line up the streets, the Flower Market is also known to locals as the "Flower Streets" where you can go shopping flowers by "walking the Flower Streets." The tradition can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Peony, orchid, and related arts, crafts and supplies are popular items in the market.

Ferda the Ant

Postcard CZ-594777 from Czech shows Ferda Mravenec (Ferda the Ant), a popular Czech animated character illustrated by Ondřej Sekora. It was first published on January 1, 1933 in the Lidové noviny, the oldest daily newspaper published in Prague, the Czech Republic.

The character have appeared in many Czech children books, including Ferda the Ant (1936), Ferda the Ant in the Foreign Service (1937), and Ferda Anthill (1938). It is popular in Czech as much as Micky Mouse in the U.S.

Moominppapa at Sea

Postcard FI-2342261 from Finland shows an illustration of Tove Marika Jansson (August 9, 1914 – June 27, 2001), a Swedish-speaking Finnish author and illustrator from Moominppapa at Sea.

With her first book of the semi-autobiographical Bildhuggarens dotter (Sculptor's Daughter) in 1968, she had published six novels and five books of short stories for adults. However, in the PostCrossing world, she is best known for the Moomin cards with illustrations from her Moomin books for children.

The first Moomin book The Moomins and the Great Flood was published in 1945. However, it wasn't until the next two books, Comet in Moominland (1946) and Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), when Moomins gained a great deal of popularity.

Moomins had lived in Moominvalley for a while, until the family decided that they needed a change and moved to a lighthouse on a tiny island. In this Volume 7 of Moomins, "they find space to grow, and to do things they couldn't in their comfortable, cluttered valley home. As they discover their new home, the family also discover surprising, and wonderfully funny, new things about themselves."

Tove Jansson won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966 for her contribution as a children's writer.

Kids Yoga from Germany

Postcard DE-2968396 from Germany shows an image of a kid (or a monkey?) doing yoga and a link to the Children's Yoga Academy. The website has a lot of information and offers for education and training of children's yoga in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2014. The first edition "Yoga for Kids" was a best-selling book on the subject. Now, with a brand new edition,  it even comes with a DVD! Of course, you can purchase 26 children's yoga themed postcards including this one from the book's website.