Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Talk About Tuesday ~ Flat Stanley (Give a Homeschooler a Project...)


Because we homeschool, we have been exempt from the second grade facscination with Flat Stanley. We'd never heard of him. But boy was he fun to have around!

If you too are unfamiliar with Flat Stanley, it is a story in which Flat Stanley is flattened by a bulletin board, and while he is flat he goes on adventures. Our personal Flat Stanley came to us via Caboose's best friend from Illinois (by St. Louis). Other Flat Stanleys have apparently visited the President of the United States and flown around the earth with astronauts. Now those are some adventures! Since we had to send Flat Stanley back, we took color copies of him for each child to keep (not just Caboose). Here is a picture of our Flat Stanley. Notice the details. There are some extras drawn on by this gifted second grader because his father is an artist (he can paint on a wall where it looks like you're looking out a window).


We were asked to let Flat Stanley do things in our everyday activities with us and send pictures if possible. The idea is that the classroom that sent Flat Stanley learns some geography about where the different Stanley's go around the country and/or world. Well, if you give a homeschooler a project, they are more than likely going to go a little crazy. We did a little scrapbook to send back. I told you we had fun with Stanley.

One of the places Stanley got to go was to Virginia Beach to Monsters on the Beach. It's one of only two places left where the Monster Trucks still race and do freestyle on the beach. Here's Caboose with Flat Stanley with the Atlantic Ocean in the background:


Here's Flat Stanley in the sand on Virginia Beach (he almost blew away!):

Here Flat Stanley is waiting in line to get in to Monsters on the Beach:

Here Buddy and Caboose are in front of the newly designed Stonecrusher truck with Flat Stanley:

Here is a picture in case you have kids that like monster trucks:

Another place Flat Stanley went was down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Sparky had a softball tournament the weekend before Memorial Day. On the way there you pass Digger's Dungeon, which is Dennis Anderson's garage and shop for his monster truck and others that are in his family. By the road out front is this truck, and Sassy and Sparky are with Flat Stanley:

Stanley got to stay with a bunch of girls in a beach house in Nags Head. He wasn't too crazy about that. This was the next day when Sparky was warming up her pitcher before the game (she pitches about 55 mph). If you haven't read before, Sparky is only about 4 feet 10 1/2 inches.

And then because we didn't want Stanley to miss out on school while he was on his adventure, and because we're mean that way, he had to sit down and do school with Caboose. That was not his favorite part of his trip. Although staying around all those girls with cooties was a pretty close second.


These are just a few of the things Flat Stanley did while he was with us. It was funny to leave the house and hear everyone say, "Does somebody have Flat Stanley and the camera?" You should have seen the looks at the dentist office!

Lara is talking about new ideas this week, so to read about it and see what others are talking about this Tuesday, go and visit her over at The Lazy Organizer.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did Flat Stanley for three of my little cousins.

Anonymous said...

I have never read the flat stanley book, but I have seen several flat stanleys around. In fact, there are a few that are semi-permanent fixtures at the zoo.

It sounds like you guys had fun with Stanley visiting your home.

Mari said...

Flat Stanley is fun - my sister had him visit her house from Australia!

Heather and Reese said...

My oldest did Flat Stanley when he was in second grade. He had so much fun!

Caboose could win awards with that smile! :)

~Reese

Rae said...

What a cute idea! I must be out of the loop because I have never heard of him! Can I make my own Flat Stanley?

frillsfluffandtrucks said...

How fun! Flat Stanley is one of the elementary school things I look forward to--I know my children will love him!

~ Sarah

Soutenus said...

When my oldest was in elementary school (10 years ago) we were introduced to Flat Stanley. It was so much fun!
Now my youngest is at that FS age! I already know where he will go first -- to my sister in law!!

She is ready with --> are you ready for this? ----> different outfits for FS to wear on the all the different outings she has planned.

Gotta love a sister in law like that!

 
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