Home from Alabama!

 

Guess who's back?  

We didn't travel to Alabama, but our Flat Stanley's did and they had an AMAZING time!  This was to be the third state visited, but by the time they were done traveling around with the Prater family they had visited a grand total of TEN STATES!  

We got our package a few days ago and I still can't believe what the Prater's put together for us.  Have a look!

The Prater's live near the US Space & Rocket Center and so the package had an outer space theme.  Jackson LOVED that! 

Here they stopped at the Chocolate Crocodile and the oldest hardware store in Alabama.  I loved the little tidbits of information that they included for each stop!

They also visited the Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas.  This is a place that the Duggar family has visited.

Then the Stanley's got to tag along on a road trip to Texas, where they visited a Six Flags and The Alamo!  Jordan was so tickled about the cowboy hat on her Stanley in this picture.

They stopped off in Louisiana to visit the WWII Museum.  Can you even believe how awesome this is?!?

Next stop:  Gulfport, Louisiana, which is along the Gulf of Mexico.  Look at that beautiful beach!

Megan saw this and said that she couldn't believe that her Stanley had traveled all over the world!  Then I told her that this was Paris, Tennessee--not Paris, France.  But it's Paris nonetheless!  A miniature Eiffel Tower still counts, right?

On the way to Ohio they stopped in Kentucky, which was neat because we were just telling the kids about the Kentucky Derby.  It's funny how much of this was in our study this year (The Alamo) and how much will be in our studies next year (WWII and astronomy.)  Yay for extra resources!!!

Finally they made it to the Prater's home state of Ohio.  

Thank you so much, 

Prater Family!

Flat Stanley Is Off Again!

This time he's taking a trip to Alabama!  We are so happy that Tonya asked us to swap Stanley's with them.  This is one family that we really want to learn more about! 

They live, love, and homeschool full-time out of their RV!  They travel all around the country having AMAZING adventures and Tonya blogs about them!  Please take a minute to read through some of Tonya's blog posts here, and tell her that I sent you!

We agreed that we would make this a month-long swap to allow enough time to really get out and explore our respective states!  This project is a really great motivator for those of us who tend to stick close to home instead of getting out and investigating.

The girls and I went to the Chamber of Commerce today and collected a few dozen brochures for attractions in our area.  We got some really great ideas of where we'd like to take their Flat Stanley when he arrives! 

Megan said today that she would like to keep sending Stanley out until he has visited every state in the U.S.!  So, if you live in a state other than Oregon and would like to set up a swap for a later date, please leave me a comment!  We'd love to learn more about your corner of our country!

I'll be posting more about Stanley's adventures, so stay tuned...

Our homeschool: Flat Stanley is home!

Today we had a great surprise in the mail--Megan's Flat Stanley is home from his trip to Florida!!!  Let me tell you, the Guerra family did a WONDERFUL job!  The kids were squealing as they looked through their package.

The package contained:

-funny newspaper cartoon about a family doing the Flat Stanley project
-pamphlets from Disney, Universal Studios, and Busch Gardens.

-family picture from our hosts

-worksheet about animals in Florida
-postcards
-a sweet seashell gift

-our journal, all filled out





In the journal, we got to see what Stanley did while he was away.  It looks like he had a great time!  They had a craft day, tea time, holiday decorating, and more!  But the thing that had us all laughing and just tickled Megan SO MUCH was this picture:

While away, Stanley met the MAYOR of St. Petersburg, Florida! Here he is with the Mayor and the Guerra family. Isn't that awesome!?!

She said, "I can't believe that the Mayor held my Flat Stanley!!!"

The Guerra kids also made Stanley a karate gee and took him to class with them!

I would definitely recommend participating in the Flat Stanley exchange to everyone.  This was really such a good experience for all of my children!  I got a lot of great ideas from our host families and can't wait until the next swap!!!

The Cato Gazette

by Megan and Jordan Cato

Greetings fellow villagers!  Happy New Year!

Since it is a new year, we just started reading through the bible from the beginning.  At nighttime, my dad reads the bible to us.  We read one chapter from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.  That way we can learn about Jesus.

Last night, we learned that God is a rock and the world is soft sand.  We should build our lives on the God rock.

Jordan just got her Flat Stanley journal back from Pennsylvania.  It was filled with all sorts of stuff!  It even had Hershey's chocolates in it because the family lived near Hershey, PA!  This is our first Stanley swap and Jordan was so happy to get it in the mail!

Here are some pictures of other things we have been doing:

 

WE GOT TO GO SLEDDING.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!

JACKSON MADE STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!

WE MADE A PUPPY AND AN OWL OUT OF FUN FUSION BEADS!

That's all for now!  Bye bye fellow villagers!

Love, Megan and Jordan

Our Family: A visit to Smith Rock

Okay, this one is kind of family life, kind of homeschooling.  Family life because it's hiking and homeschooling because we wouldn't have gone if it hadn't been for this book!  This month, we took part in The Homeschool Lounge's fall Flat Stanley project. The project is based on the book "Flat Stanley", by Jeff Brown, about a little boy who is flattened by a billboard and goes on to have great adventures! We made our own little "Stanley's" as well as a journal, and sent them across the country to other homeschooling families for a visit.  Megan's Stanley is visiting Florida, and Jordan's is in Pennsylvania. The girls are both very excited to see what their Stanley's did while they were away.

We have had a lot of fun thinking up places to take our little visitors.  We're new to the High Desert, so finding places that are unique to the area has been a bit of a challenge.  Yesterday we took them to Smith Rock for a little hiking. There were only a few rock climbers to watch, but it was a fun trip all the same. Here are a few pictures of the kids with their Stanley's. 

One more sign that my Megan is growing up:  Today while we were working on our journals, she said, "I can't write that Stanley had a great time yesterday, because he's just a piece of paper--it would be lying to say that!"  I asked her what she would like to write, and she said, "I can write that we took their piece of paper to Smith Rock."  Ha!  Suddenly, I've become the silly mommy who is making her spend time with a character from a book!  It seems like just yesterday that she was telling me that she was going to Alaska to live with wolves.  Oh wait...