Our First Flat Traveler Experience

  We've been having fun with our Facebook group Homeschool Swapping Adventures.  Our last adventure was swapping flat travelers.  Let me tell you, we had a blast with our travelers we received.  The neat part about taking them around was it encouraged us to take more pictures of our everyday life added along with side trips to show neat things about our area!
  In addition to pictures and journaling, we also included small trinkets and pamphlets we picked up along the way - sort of like a small geo-box.  Here are some pictures of what we sent back with our visiting travelers:

Flat Darcy's packet en route to Texas

Flat Jerrin's packet en route to Washington

Here is what we received:

Texas

Flat Darcy's family had some cool trips while our traveler was there an adorable scrapbook & even some bluebonnet seeds (Texas's state flower).  Mookie is so thrilled to plant those in her garden next year!

Washington State

Flat Jerrin's family sent a great journal, a local newspaper, locally made candies and soaps, and even a Bigfoot keychain:)  Bubby is ready to use the map to go see his bestie out in Seattle someday:)

What a wonderful experience!  I've learned some new things to send, like a cd with digital versions of the pictures, and a fact sheet with state info and even a map showing where the traveler went while they were with us.

The only problem we've had so far is that USPS Priority mail is not really as fast as the 2 days like it is advertised.  Our package from Texas took almost 2 weeks, and the one from Washington took a week (it went from Washington to Kansas City, to Memphis, TN and back to us!).  The benefit of doing it priority, however, is that you get a tracking number automatically so you can track it if need be.

A cool side benefit is that you really get to act as an ambassador for your area.  It really makes you think about your everyday activities and if you send your traveler info in journal form, it's neat to see what you've been up to for the last month:)  We're ready to see what new adventures our travelers have!

Swapping!

We recently found this great little group on Facebook, Homeschool Swapping Adventures.  We had previously been a part of another postcard swap group where we swapped postcards with families from across the U.S.  We received about 30 of the states, and when I found this group had a postcard swap we made it a goal to pick up the ones we were missing.  For the postcard swap, you can swap with 7 other families each month.  We exchanged with Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, Japan, and England (we're still waiting on this one). 
  So far so good, but the swapping opportunities are not limited to postcards.  We also participated in a Geo-box swap with a family from Georgia.  A Geo-box is where you exchange items that symbolize your state.  Geography freaks that we are, we were very excited to learn about one of our southern states! 
  It sounds like you can set parameters for swapping, but we and our swapping family, just jumped in and it worked out nicely:)   Here is a pic of what we sent. 

  We included a Kansas archaeology curriculum (of course), flyers and pamphlets from all over the state, some Wizard of Oz stickers, a postcard we send out with our postcard swaps, honey (the state insect is a honey bee), sunflowers (state flower), buffalo bookmarks (state animal), Russell Stover candies, and several other worksheets & fun trinkets:)  
  Our swapping buddies sent us (my picture isn't the best because I had hidden the camera from Shorty and forgotten where I put it, so I used the phone's camera): 

a Georgia mug, Coca Cola glass, some Georgia bracelets, fans, a Lego keychain from Legoland (of course this caught Bubby's attention), a dolphin (Mookie latched on to), and shell, apple snacks, a science experiment from their Science Center and some great fliers and pamphlets, and other neat trinkets:) 
  The kids are all ready to jump into another swap again, and the site offers new swapping opportunities every month.  So I think that this is just the start of our swapping adventures:)