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.

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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

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

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

Warmly,
CP

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We have had a terrific time hosting and sending travelers.  For us it has been more about the fun of it, although we have learned a lot, especially about our own state!  Many travelers participate for educational purposes and learn geography, civics, map reading, writing skills, photography, art skills, journaling and usually history. 

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 and not have the traveler with us.  We forgot him when we went to Valleyfair, the Minnesota State Fair, when our baby was born, at Christmas, a birthday party...  how sad.
• 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.  I take a picture of our departing flattie next to the addressed envelope he/she will be traveling in, that way I also have another record of where it is heading.
• Pick up brochures and pamphlets everywhere you go, even the grocery store, take-out menus, any little thing that gives insight to your family, your experiences and your city.
• 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.  Although I tend to keep our guest about 6-8 weeks, oops!
• Have links and information about your hometown on your computer so it will be handy to print out.  I also have a short biography of our family to send with our flatties so they will know a bit about our family.
• I also like to have maps, postcards, and brochures on hand, in case I forget to pick up new ones
• Send home a family snapshot, this is even more special if the flat traveler is in the photo.
• If you are flat traveling via a Yahoo group, you will have to be VERY persistent to send and receive travelers.  I have found that not much happens if all you do is post to the message area.

Do you have any tips or ideas to share?

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We attended the Sherburne National Wildlfe Festival at the wildlife refuge.  We were impressed with the range of activities they had, the demonstrations and information.  We learned about raptors in Minnesota, various animals that are in Minnesota and the refuge, different plants that can be used to make tea, how to build birdhouse, how fires are important to a refuge, and much more.  By far the favorite was target practice with air rifles and archery.  None of us had tried either so it was a new and exciting experience.  It turns out Reeb was a crackshot and an excellent archer, she got a bullseye every single time.  NickaBob did great too and had excellent aim.  Cap wanted to go back againa and again, he definitelt showed improvement.

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A visit to our house just wouldn't be complete without spending some time building with Legos.  One of Cap and NickaBob's favorite thing to do is play a game they invented called "Crashback".  They build cars and then race them down the hallway to crahs into each other.  The person with the sturdiest car wins.

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The kids, the flats and our homeschool group visited Historic Fort Snelling in St. Paul, MN.  They learned about the importance of the fur trade, the trade routes, how furs were prepared for use, and what the Native American Indians role was in trading.

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Have you had experience flat traveling?
Do you have a Flat Travel Blog or web site to share your travel experiences? 

If so, please let me know, I would love to hear and see your experiences and if you like  I could add a link to this on my site.

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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 once 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 music 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, but he would rather play Age of Empires III on the computer.

On Thursday they will attend their learning co-op called Partnership.

Mrs. Parks is setting up this travel Blog on the Homeschool Blog so more homeschoolers might see it.

Her other Blog is

http://mntravelers.blogspot.com/

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