I confess to having only skimming a lot of recent posts, so this may have
been mentioned on the discussion about Cub Scouts and letterboxing, but I
just started a 4-H Letterboxing Club and took the advice of some other
folks on this list about personal stamps for kids. Instead of everyone
carving (the group is 9-12 year olds), I got pre-cut, adhesive-backed foam
pieces, dumped them out on huge trays and gave each kids a sanded,
varnished 2"x2" block of wood (1/2" thick) and let them go to town. Once
the had a design they were happy with, they stuck it down. Worked like a
charm, everyone could work at the same time, no bloody fingers, everybody's
happy. (Incidentally, all the attending parents also made personal stamps
and journals and participated in the group personal stamp exchange and
finding the first letterbox, so I now have an enthusiastic group of
volunteers involved). One of the kids was particularly interested in the
carving process and needled his mom into stopping on the way home to pick a
couple pink erasers and he's going to try the "pencil eraser holder" method
described on the wen site. During the worst winter months we'll try our
hand at developing boxes to hide, so kids interested in carving will have
an opportunity to try their hand then, and there will be time for close
adult monitoring of the process.

Debbie T., "the Bee"