Packing Shoeboxes

One event we do every Christmas is pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. This year we are privileged to have so many flat helpers.
Our family loves this ministry because we can personalize each box with boy stuff or girlie items, send a letter and photos if we want and add a variety of goodies. We try to remember to pray over each box and that the precious child receiving it would not only be blessed, but would come to know Christ as their savior.

New Flats Arrive!

We got two new visitors. Their first outing was our homeschool co-op Partnership where they participated in gym class.
We hope they enjoy their stay with us.

Thanks for stopping by

We appreciate your visits here and hope you find it interesting. Flat traveling has opened up educational opportunities we would not have had. We are learning about other families, cities, culture, history, landmarks and geography by trading flat travelers with families all around the world.
As more posts are added and our experiences, hopefully you learn a bit too.
There are many links about Minnesota, so please browse through them and get a small taste of what Minnesota living is all about.
Check out the interactive items on the sidebar, please use them. We would love to see where you are from on the guest map and read your comments in the guest book.
Our posts have been primarily about the travelers that we host, would you like to see information and pictures about travelers that we sent out?

Frosty Fall Days!

These pictures show the changing weather and the changing colors in our autumn forecast. The flat visitors are coping well.
However, they will be heading home soon since none of them brought winter coats!
Because the clocks were set back last night it is now getting dark at 5:30 p.m., which I do not like!

About Flat Travelers

Are you curious about what flat traveling is all about?
It seems to have originated from a children's book titled Flat Stanley. Stanley had an unfortunate accident and was flattened, which turned into a positive thing when he wants to take a trip but can't afford it because his family decides to mail him.
What we did is we printed out some paper doll patterns and colored them. Each of my kids picked what kind of flat traveler they wanted to send. Some people send flat pets, animals, historic figures, or a paper doll of themselves. We also laminated our travelers to make them more durable. Once our travelers were ready we had to find host families for them.

My favorite source for that was a Yahoo group called, Flat Travelers Homeschool.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flat_travelers_homeschool/

From this group you will learn how to compose a journal, you will find families willing to host your traveler, you'll see pictures of other travelers, it really is a complete site.
After your travelers are mailed to the host family they will show your traveler the town! They will take the traveler to places the host family is visiting and also make him a part of their daily routine. The host family will also keep a journal of sorts documenting things about their own family, their town, area, and what they have been doing. Most travelers are gone 3-4 weeks, but we found the average length of time to be 6-8 weeks.
Our travelers have been to Texas, British Columbia, Alberta and Illinois. Traveling is not without its risks; we have one traveler missing and one has been gone for almost a year. It does happen, but I don't know how often.
One way to bypass that is to have Cyber Flat Travelers, which is one purpose of this blog.


Great Links about Flat Traveling
This site describes flat travelling, shares photos and has helpful links. http://www.angelfire.com/empire2/flattraveling/

The Official Flat Stanley Site
http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/

A Fellow Flat Traveling Family
http://www.zorenaflattravelers.blogspot.com/

Another Family's Adventures with Flat Travelling
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zanyzookeeper/

FLAT TRAVELER'S HOME SCHOOL SCRAPBOOK
http://flattravelschool.bravejournal.com/

Fall Harvest Orchard

What a beautiful day for a great experience! We attended Fall Harvest Orchard five miles from Delano. The weather was sunny, 70 degrees, a light breeze and brilliant colors everywhere. This orchard is especially terrific to see because there are many things to do, a favorite is to jump and play in the corn bin, it is even better than a ball pit!

Flat Traveling in Cape Cod

We received one of our travelers home from Cape Cod. Our flattie even got to attend a Boston Red Sox game. Considering NickaBob is a HUGE baseball fan, that was a treat! The Cape looks like a BEAUTIFUL place and very different from our neck of the woods.

The Ojibwe learned to survive cold winters.

Sioux is actually a nickname, this band of Native Americans are actually the Ojibwe.

October 10 - Cap, Nicka and Riss went with our homeschool group to Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post. The flatties decided to go along and learn about the Sioux Indians that are native to Minnesota.

We went out to eat at the new Godfather's Pizza restaurant open in our town.

Sherburne National Wildlife Festival at the Refuge

Althought the leaves are changing fast there is still a lot of green to be found.

Crazy Monkey and Flat Stanley enjoy the view of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.

View of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.

After archery we tried air rifles. None of the kids had tried that before either. It was a favorite and both Nicka and Riss were crackshots. Now they are both eager to try hunting.

It turns out Riss is quite the archer; she hit a bulleye 5 out of 6 times!

We had a gorgeous, sunny day, but it was only about 58 degrees, which feels fine in the sun, but in the shade or if the wind picked up it was chilly. One thing we had never tried was archery. Cap, Nicka and Riss all tried it out.

Norlee enjoyed getting chauffered around in her stroller. Our flattie guests got tired of walking and hitched a ride with her.

We live near Sherburne National Wildlfe Refuge. They recently had a Wildlife Festival that we attended for the first time. It was GREAT! Here we are all checking out different furs: Red Fox, Gray Fox, skunk, squirrels, raccoon, beaver, and otter.

Flat Ducky comes outside too and while they are looking around they spotted a Great Blue Heron in our pond.

Flat Billings Bear joins Charles outside for a look at the brilliant fall colors.

Beautiful fall colors in our backyard. We had a chilly night and woke up to frost on the ground and mist rising from the lake.

At the 20 yard line Flat Dude, Wamponoag Maiden and Flat RC cheer NickaBob on. AND they WIN the game!

NickaBob plays football for ZM Columbia. He brought some of our Flat visitors to watch the game.

Where Are Our Travelers?

We currently have several travelers visiting a variety of locations.
Flat Nicholas is in Alberta, Canada.
Flat Charles and Flat Nicka are in Plano, Texas.
Flat CAP is in West Virginia.
Flat Bob is heading to Massachusetts.
We sent Cyber Cyrus to Japan.
Flat Basketball Bobby arrived safely in Massachusetts.
We have travelers heading to New Zealand, one to Auckland and one to Christchurch.
We have two travelers visitng other parts of Minnesota. Hooray!

Our flat visitors conduct a science experiement with Cap. They are looking at pond life grown with various food sources.

Norlee loves to get acquainted with travelers!

Flat Dude gets a piano lesson. He already knows how to play guitar and was interested in trying something new.

Games class was definitely a favorite! Big guys, little people and even flatties like to play Trench, Dodgeball and Kickball.

Billings Bear, Flat Stanley, Crazy Monkey and Flat Dude were good students in CAP's Minnesota class.

At our homeschool cooperative our flat friends learned about Minnesota history and glaciers, then they attended yearbook class with Reeb.

Crazy Monkey is surrounded by crazy people. He fits right in and enjoys all the attention. Cousin Jady carries him around for a bit and tried to take Crazy Monkey for a walk.

Billings Bear meets another sweet baby girl. Cousin Jady likes Billing's bright fur.

Our cousin, Jady, meest Flat Stanley. She studied him for quite a while. At least she didn't try to eat him!

CAP and our flat guests get a group piano lesson. Our piano teacher, Mrs. Mac, is wonderful to be around. They worked on a song called, "Stealing Second Base." It was difficult and will take a lot of practice.

We have been busy, after supper we made chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, man were they big and yummy!
Then we played baseball on the computer with Nicka. Nicka is pretty good and he won... THIS time.
Flat Dude was able to beat him though, don't know how he did that!
Tomorrow Riss has violin lessons and we may join in. The Parks said we could take piano while we're visiting. They have a very kind teacher who also homeschools.
They have this really cute baby and she likes travelers. She did try to eat all the travelers, except Flat Dude, she just danced him around a bit.
The Parks' homeschool is called Lakeview Christian Academy and Boarding School, they are currently studying biology, general science, Minnesota History and literature. CAP likes to do critical thinking problems.
On Thursday they will attend their learning co-op called Partnership.
Mrs. Parks is setting up a Flat Travel Blog on the Homeschool Blog so more homeschoolers might see it.
Her other Blog is
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/flattraveler/

Tips and Ideas about Flat Traveling

We have had a terrific time hosting and sending travelers. For us it has been about the fun of it, although many travelers do so for educational purposes. Some things we have learned along the way:
I would have two maps, one for when we return from somewhere and one showing who we hosted from where.
If we hosted a flattie and are not reciprocating, I would look up their city on a map and read about their state in the encyclopedia, that way we have a better understanding of where our visitor came from.
If you have a digital camera, take LOTS of pictures! It doesn't matter if you are doing just everyday things, we can learn much from each other's daily events. You can make a CD of pictures, get some printed out, post them on your site, email them, and/or make a digital scrapbook.
If you don't have a digital camera, please take photos anyway and get some developed to send home.
Remember to jot things down often as it will help when you are compiling your travelers journal. Take your traveler EVERYWHERE! I don't know how many times we forgot our traveler at home. It was so disappointing to be doing something fun or unique and not have the traveler with us.
Take a picture of your traveler BEFORE you send him/her out. You may never see it again and it would be nice to remember which traveler it was that you lost.
Pick up brochures and pamphlets everywhere you go.
Be sure to laminate your traveler to make it sturdier and a bit water resistent.
Email back and forth between host and traveler now and then, just to keep in touch. This is especially important when it has been a while since your traveler has been gone.
Please try to get your traveler home within a month, two weeks is probably even better.
Have links and information about your hometown on your computer so it will be handy to print out.
I also like to have maps, postcards, and brochures on hand, in case I forget.
Send home a family snapshot, this is especially nice if the flat traveler is in the photo.

Do you have any tips or ideas to share?

Cyrus Goes to Japan

This is Cyber Cyrus. He is presently visiting a classroom in Japan. We can;t wait to hear about his adventures!

Eastern Flatties Head West of the Mighty Mississippi

Look who has come to visit us: Flat Stanley from Maine and Crazy Monkey from West Virginia. WELCOME, we hope you enjoy your stay in Minnesota.

Flat Billings Bear gets acquainted with Norlee who thinks he looks like a cherry gummi bear!

Norlee tells us, "Billings Bear is just ADORABLE!"

Lego at the Mall of America

Flat Max and CAP check out the Bionical display. Then they proceeded to the hands-on area where they built Lego cars to race down a ramp.

The Lego store has lots of fun stuff to look at.

We visit the Lego store at Mall of America.