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Flat Stanley Comes For a Stay With Us, In Plymouth, MA, from Oregon! | Homeschooling

March 19, 2012 By Laura 1 Comment

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Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley?  Or the Flat Stanley kid’s books his character is from?  Well I hadn’t.  Or I don’t recall, anyway.  Our oldest daughter does remember the books, but I have not been at all familiar with Flat Stanley, and neither had our fourth grade trio!  But we were about to get very familiar with him!  He was coming from Oregon, to stay at our house with our family, in Plymouth, MA, as an exchange student, of sorts.

001 This is the day Flat Stanley arrived, and I told the triplets all about their new and exciting project!  (Please excuse the bad cell phone pic in this one shot!) Flat Stanley was not only going to be fun, but he was going to be a wonderful homeschooling project, loaded with excellent lessons.

 

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This is our little friend Logan. Handsome guy, huh? He’s also so sweet, so smart, and the best big brother ever. He’s just all about love. His mother and I are  friends.  When she was looking for some hosts to send Logan’s Flat Stanley from his elementary school to where Flat Stanley could go and learn about a new area, and to take that info back to Logan’s first grade class, we were all over it!  What a great class project this would be for our younger ones! And what a great area for Flat Stanley to learn about! Plymouth, MA is a town filled with much American History!   We couldn’t wait to show Flat Stanley so many things, and see to it he enjoyed his trip. ; )

(Half the fun, was pretending Stanley was real.  And yet we learned even more about our area, right along with him.)

The following photos are just a few highlights of Flat Stanley’s trip here in Plymouth, Massachusetts:

002_flat-stanley-mayflower
Flat Stanley in front of the replica of the Mayflower. (Also knows as the Mayflower II.)

 

003_flat-stanley-plymouth-rock At Plymouth Rock!  He was very excited to see this rock he had heard and read so much about, in person.

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Unfortunately, Flat Stanley came at a time that is a little off-season, in this tourist town. He really wanted to take a look around this gift shop we came upon, but this particular one was closed for the season. But that’s not a problem when you are Flat Stanley!  He slipped through the door crack. He was looking for souvenirs to take home to Logan, and his class!  But of course, there was no one to ring anything up for him.

 

005 Stanley read this whole sign, to learn more about our area, and the historical events that happened right here!  It was a lot of reading for a first grader, filled with important facts and dates.  But Stanley found it so interesting.

006_flat-stanley-sagamore-bridge
One sunny day, we took Stanley down to the Cape Cod Canal.  It was windy and cold, but he really wanted to see the two bridges, the Sagamore and the Bourne.  The Canal walk/bike trail, runs about 7-8 miles, between the two bridges.  It was too cold to walk the length, but he did get to see both bridges!

 

007_flat-stanley-ash-wednesday Of course Flat Stanley attended Mass with us on Sundays.  He also received his ashes on Ash Wednesday. (Were you wondering what was on his forehead, until now? ; )

008_flat-stanley-superbowl-party He had a great time with us on Super Bowl Sunday!

He cheered on the Patriots with us, like a true New England fan!

 

009 Here, Stanley finds some great souvenirs to get for his friend Logan, his classmates, and also the teacher of his class.

He bought everything with his own spending money!

Stanley is so thoughtful.

010_flat-stanley
Since Stanley arrived with just a t-shirt on, the kids made him some paper-doll clothes: a warm jacket, and a New England Patriot’s jersey. (As seen wearing on Superbowl Sunday.)

The kids also wrote a really great report, all about Stanley’s stay with us, in Plymouth, MA. 

As their teacher, I was SO pleased with their report!

011 We had gathered together many great mementos to send back with him, to share with Logan and his classmates.  There was a nice educational Plymouth, MA guide book as a gift for Logan, and bookmarks for all of his classmates too!

012
This was for the teacher and her classroom.   Do you see the contents list?  Check out what they look like….

013 How cool is that, for a classroom to have?

014-flat-stanley-visits-plymouth-ma These are all of the printed photos of Stanley’s trip, in this post.

015 The kid’s made a photo album to send as well, using the photos, card stock, sticky photo tabs, a whole puncher, and silver twist ties. They wrote notes under each photo in the album.

That way Logan’s class could see all Stanley got to see while he was here, and Stanley could have the album as memories from his trip, and his stay with us.

In the end, we realized there were many lessons for the kids, in hosting Flat Stanley.  Here are some of the academic and social skill areas that were involved:

  • American History / Social Studies
  • Geography
  • Map Skills
  • Gathering Resources & Information
  • Organizing Information
  • Writing a Report
  • Handwriting
  • Spelling & Vocabulary
  • Addressing Packages / Post Office
  • and of course…..Being a Proper Host!

016
After a long good-bye with our new friend Stanley, we packed him and all of his belongings up in a box, and headed to the post office, to see him off!

It was a project we all enjoyed very much!  We hope Logan and his class, enjoy learning all about Plymouth, MA, from Stanley’s education here.

Have you ever heard of these Flat Stanley projects? Have you ever sent one to another state, or hosted one where you live? Share a link to your blog post if you have one, or just tell us a little about it!

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Filed Under: Geography, History / Social Studies, Homeschooling Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, elementary-geography, elementary-history, Flat-Stanley, Flat-Stanley-Massachusetts, Flat-Stanley-OR, Flat-Stanley-Oregon, Flat-Stanley-Plymouth-MA, homeschooling, report, triplets

God’s World News / World News Group – A Newspaper for Your Kids!

January 17, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

God's World News / World News Group

(now….)

God's World News / World News Group  
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See UPDATE Below.

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Hi there Everyone!!

We’ve been wanting to share with our readers, a subscription that we have found our children really, really benefit from.  It’s put out by * ** God’s World News, and there are various titles, for various reading/age/grade levels to fit the level of any child, Pre-K through young teens! We have received it for a number of years, and it has proved to be a valuable and educational news source throughout. It’s a newspaper for kids!!

* UPDATE/Revision:  God’s World News is now: WORLD News Group   – The links in this post (for God’s World News), will still bring you to the correct site, under their new titles. From there, there are individual site links to the newspaper for the proper age range for your child(ren):  God’s Big World/Pre-Schoolers, worldkids/Elementary age, WORLD TEEN/Teenagers
** IMPORTANT NOTE: Although the titles of the newspapers has changed, the high quality content has not! The intent of the newspaper publications, for age appropriate world news, reported in the light of faith, remains unchanged.

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(Is this photo of our boy, reading his newspaper, not a RIOT??!  He often does sit just like this….while reading, at Mass, etc.  It always cracks us up, but he looked especially like a little man, sitting in his chair with his legs crossed, reading his newspaper. Look at his flickering toes. lol)

Our triplet 6 year olds receive God’s Word News-Early Edition (now World Kids).  Our 11 year old receives God’s World News-Top Story (now World Teen).

Our kids benefit from their age-appropriate newspaper-magazines so much, because they ENJOY it so much! They enjoy it so much, because it has SO much to offer! There is a LOT in each edition, and a huge (educational) variety at that.  If you homeschool your kids, we highly recommend this subscription!  If your kids are enrolled in school, we highly recommend this subscription!  : )  This rave review is fueled solely by our family receiving this magazine, and us as parents, consistently seeing what happens with our kids, when they get it into their hands. They get many hours of social studies educational exposure and information from each issue.  All in the name of QUIET for us FUN for them! That’s why we had to tell you all about it…..it just seems like it’s something GREAT for any and all kids!   Read on.

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I don’t know about you, but I want my kids to know what is going on in the world.  They should generally be aware of current events, politics, new-breaking stories, scientific findings, history, etc. But in an age appropriate way!
The problem is, television news, as well as newspaper news, are not geared towards communicating to children.

Naturally, it’s not their mission, as it is all meant to inform adults, and rightly so.  So it’s simply not conveyed in a way all children would understand, nor necessarily be emotionally ready for.

God's-World_news-World-News-Group

That’s what we love about this magazine.  In it HIGHLY informative about the world’s news, presented in a way to catch and hold kid’s attention,  and is easily understood, in kids’ terms and ways they can relate to.  It draws them in.  In younger level editions, it’s snippets of info they can read and truly comprehend and retain.   Older kid’s issues are generally the same topics, but with more detail, longer articles and a more in-depth study overall. Then additional stuff. What I love most, is that the contents is delivered in a Christian/Biblical Worldview style.

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But it’s not just serious current events news stories. Each issue is also jam packed with (reading, of course), science, history, geography, weather, funny stories, etc.  And all with LOTS of photos. There are games, experiments, activities and puzzles that strengthen skills such as logic, observation, process of elimination, …. the list goes on. AND on!

6_God's-World_news-World-News-Group

 Beyond the magazine itself, they have a website that has even MORE to supplement each edition.  There are parent/teacher resources, bonus pages to enhance or expand on all the kids have learned, and even quizzes and keys you can use.  There is LOTS at the web site, that is another educational tool all it’s own.

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When our kids are reading their issues, they are so amused by something, or intrigued with something they learned, that they feel compelled to share it with us, or read it to us.  Sometimes, they ask questions, because they want to know more and more. This often launches great discussions to have with your children, that can get as deep as you want, or give you an opportunity to ask them questions, that encourage them to think through concepts, varied opinions, or their own perspectives.  It’s a wonderful tool to help jump-start really good discussions, about often very important topics in the world, with your children.

012_God's-World-News-World-News-Group  For example: Here, {A} is reading about Fidel Castro-how he came to be a dictator, his ways of dictatorship, and all of the effects it has had on his country.

Here’s another  page of Top Story (sorry about the glare. : ):

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Each issue (all editions for all ages) most always has wonderful maps, educational fold-out spreads, and/or pull-out posters, like this one:

013_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

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I love also, how these arrivals in our mailbox, bring our kids together too!  They love to share with each other what they are reading, and have discussions of their own about the topic.  They end up laughing together, reading together, learning together, which all means they are simply enjoying more of being ….together!

015_triplets-reading-God's-World-News-World-News-Group

If you find yourself remotely intrigued, we encourage you to check out the God’s World News web site. Look around!!  There are peeks inside these subscriptions, and you are also likely able to get a free copy if you request one, to decide for yourself what you think of them!  For us, it’s been just too good of a great thing, NOT to let any parent, or teaching parent, know about this amazing tool. We find it WELL worth the cost of the subscription.  We all know that our kids learn the most, when they are enjoying what they are doing, or enjoying HOW they are learning…anything at all!  The more ways we can find to give them that, the better. Because when they are having fun learning, they want to learn more and more and more.  So we hope you find this newspaper-magazine to be ‘good mail’ in your family.

We’re pretty excited about MANY things we’ve got coming up to share with you on our blog, so come back soon!! In the meantime, if your kids are receiving a subscription, or have a book, or watch a show….that YOU find very valuable, educational, and they really enjoy, please share it with us!  We know there is a wealth of info and resources out there, and what better way than to share it with each other, complete with reviews and gold stars!

We hope you are all enjoying this long weekend!

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Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Elementary Homeschooling READING, Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE, Geography, History / Social Studies, Homeschooling, Middle School Homeschooling, Middle School Homeschooling SCIENCE, Politics and Government, Science Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, current-events, current-events-newspaper-for-kids, God's World News, God's-worldviews-news, homeschooling, newspapers-for-kids, social-studies-for-preschool-elementary, triplets, World-News-Group

We are wicked happy to have you here! We hope you find much inspiration, help, humor and enjoyment here.




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