Flat Travelers in our Minnesota Homeschool

This idea is based on the book "Flat Stanley".

A Flat Traveler is a person, animal or thing made out of paper. You print or draw your Traveler, laminate it and then mail it along with a blank journal to someone in another area, state or country. The host family treats your Flat Traveler as a guest and takes it places they go. After a short time your Flat Traveler is mailed back to you along with a completed journal and perhaps some photos, postcards and/or souvenirs. You look over your Flat Travelers journey and plot it on a map. Some families keep a scrapbook with all their journals, souvenirs and photos inside.

Some families send out one Flat Traveler and other families send out dozens! You can make this project as simple or as detailed as you like. This is a fun way to learn about geography and history among many other subjects!

This group has been formed to give homeschool families a group of participants to contact world wide. As a member of this group you should be prepared to host Flat Travelers from other families as well.

It is my hope that many friendships will be made through this list. Come join the fun!

Flaming, spamming or any other rude behavior will NOT be tolerated. Members not abiding by this rule will be removed and banned.

Anyone can join the group. However, anyone starting any kind of heated debate will immediately be put on moderated status. If the behavior continues that member will be removed from the group and banned. This group was created to discuss flat traveling and our experiences in homeschooling.

Here is a great Yahoo group to get you traveling.  We belonged to this group for many years and had wonderful experiences and contacts with pople all over.

From the Yahoo Group Home Page:
"What could be more exciting than traveling to new and exciting places? How about if each trip cost less than $5.00? Sound impossible? Not if you’re a Flat Traveler!

Based on the book "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown, the Flat Travelers Project brings together families from around the world. Each member of the Flat Travelers Project designs and creates their own "flat traveler" and mail it on trips. After spending a week with their hosts, the travelers return home with a travel journal of their adventures. It’s almost as fun as making the trip yourself!

Besides being a lot of fun, the Flat Travelers Project is also educational. Families can make geography fun by using a map to mark all the places their traveler has visited; practice writing skills while filling in the travel journals; and improve reading comprehension while reading about all the adventures their traveler had while away.

While originally designed for homeschooling families, the Flat Travelers Project is open to ANY interested family or educator. There are a few "Flat Moms" in the group too! And it’s not just for kids, many of the parents, grandparents and teachers have been having just as much, if not more, fun than the kids!"

We received a new flat traveler this week.  He hails from Alberta, Canada.

It inspired my boys who were not excited about travelers any more. 

We took a field trip to Honey Hill Farm where they keep bees and sell their honey. 

It was a delightful experience which led to a study and lapbook about bees.

Honey Hill Farm

Sep 25, 2006 – 27 Photos

Here are some links we used in our bee unit study:

NATURE: Alien Empire – Enter the Hive

Lesson Tutor : Introduction To Bees by Lisa Hawkins

Honeybee — Pictures, Animal Facts, Habitats, Video, Sound, Wallpaper — National Geographic

Honey Bee Printout – EnchantedLearning.com

Free Software about Beekeeping and Honey Bees

Crosswalk.com – A Honey of a Unit Study

Bees – Insects for Kids – A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling Science

Greetings to all of you!I have been reading many rumbles of dissatisfied flat travelers andsome who are even quitting beacause of traveler losses.We have been active flattie hosts and senders for about 2-3 years.  Iconfess we have sometimes had flats for a YEAR!  Life often does getin the way and all my aspirations and good intentions don't get theflatties home by themselves.As a hosting parent I am sure you had hoped your child would take onsome of the flattie responsibility, I know I have.  The reality is, itfalls on me.  I have to remind the kids to write, to take pictures, tograb brochures and to compile everything and mail it.  So keep that inmind when you take on this incredible adventure.As a matter of fact I currently have about 6 flatties that have beenhere since November.  I know, how naughty!The problem was first, the holiday scramble and then this mommy gotVERY sick in January.  I have been sleeping 12-13 hours a day, goingthrough numerous doctor visits and tests and I am sorry to say ourflattie hosting just fell by the wayside.Yet, in spite of all that I have been met with such graciousness andunderstanding.  I wouldn't give up this Flat Traveling experience foranything.  And if you are one of our stranded visitors, thank you fornot sending me hate mail or in other ways getting angry.

Another tip, make color copies or digital pictures of your flattie andmail out the copies, not the originals.  Alos, it helps ALOT if yourflattie is laminated.  I know our visitors are often stuffed into thecamera case, backpacks, diaper bag and cluthed in dirty hands.   So anyway, if we are hosting your flattie, I apologize, please hang inthere your flattie will get home!And if you are hosting any of our flatties, don't be embarassed aboutthe delay, we'll take them any way we can. There is nothing like aflattie returning home to excite and motivate my kids!

Warmly,CP