Receiving and sending happy mail

Thanks, my friends, for all your gorgeous, supportive and helpful comments about our new house. I can see it’s going to be such a fun journey making our mark on the place, transforming it into our home. And I’m so delighted you’ll be sharing the ride with us! Now, back to other matters Planet Baby ☺. In this age of instant communication, I’m still one of those old-fashioned girls who revels in the delights of sending and receiving handwritten mail. I posted about it here early on. Lately, as relaxation, I have been crafting some handmade cards and popping them in the post to bloggy friends all over the world, just so they can have a tangible reminder of their friend in far-flung Tasmania. I love focusing on my friends as I write to them, just *being in the moment* and imagining their responses when they read them. It’s a thrill (and skill) I’m eager to pass onto the pixies and lately we’ve had a ball with it through two different projects.

Flat Stanley

A few months ago, my dear friend Jeanne of Collage of Life sent us over an intriguing packet. It contained a colourful little laminated fellow called ‘Flat Stanley’. Here he is.

We were unfamiliar with him but understand he’s quite an enigmatic and popular chap all around the world. Jeanne sent him to us as part of ‘The Official Flat Stanley Project’.  The idea is for schools all over the world to create their own ‘Flat Stanley’ and then post him to children in faraway spots in the world. They have to take photos of him with them in their hometown, write about their adventures with him and then send him onto another destination until finally his passport expires and he’s returned to the original school.

I adore the concept as it really made the pixies feel part of a world community and encouraged their literacy skills. Here’s their excitement at receiving Jeanne’s parcel “all the way from the other side of the world”. Thanks, Jeanne – you made two little children very happy. And Jeanne was sweet enough to also send one of her son's 'Flat Stanley' books for the pixies to keep.

Here’s Jeanne’s delightful card explaining all the exotic climes he had already visited.

Here are the pixies posing with him in front of the Stanley Street sign with Mt Wellington in the background.

And the man of the moment, up to his high jinks.

Well, Stanley recently decided he’d spent enough time on Planet Baby and headed over ‘The Ditch’ to my old friend Ann of My Villa Life in Auckland, New Zealand. I know her two young boys are excited about having Flat Stanley to stay. The pixies are looking forward to what he gets up to over there before returning to his school in the US.

International Postcard Swap for Families

I stumbled across this little project somewhere in Blogland the other day. Clever Zoe Toft of Playing by the Book came up with this nifty idea which you can read about here. According to Zoe, “The idea is simple – you sign up, you agree to send 5 postcards overseas, including a children’s book recommendation and in return you will be sent 5 postcards from overseas each containing a children’s book recommendation.”

Well, that suggestion was right up the pixies’ alley.

Here are the goodies we posted off today. The pixies loved counting up the value of the stamps required for each different country and affixing the distinctive Australian airmail sticker with its Southern Cross. They added lots of kisses and hugs and Joshie wrote their names.

Here’s a close-up of the card of our island state, Tasmania, by the talented local artist, Littleandbigk.

Now these beauties are winging their way over to India, the United Kingdom, country New South Wales in Australia, the USA and Poland. The pixies just can’t wait to receive their postcards – every day for the next fortnight or so, there will be a daily and noisy race to the letterbox to see if any postcards await them! Then we’ll haul out our atlas and find where the postcards came from  - hopefully, they’ll become mad about maps, just like me!

I’d love to hear if you’ve done anything similar with your children. Do you share my passion for introducing them to the big wide world out there?!