Flat Stanley Project:

Mini-me Swap with Cobourg Public Library in Ontario, Canada.







I love post, especially when it has come a really long way.

So, to savour the joy, I let our kids at the library open our exciting parcel from Canada at our craft session last week.

It comprised of a selection of handmade, personalised Flat Stanleys created by a group of children from Cobourg Public Library in Ontario, along with a host of leaflets and brochures about their community and attractions.

Rhonda from the library in Cobourg was running this project during the school holidays and had got in touch with Devon Libraries to invite a library to swap Flat Stanleys with them. Without a moment of hestation I said, "yes please and thank you very much" and thus began an overseas odyssey.

We ran our own craft session in early September, for our kids to return the favour. Our kids had such fun opening this well-travelled package of delights, especially as each "Stanley" was packaged in its own handmade envelope, meaning each child was able to unveil a unique Stanley and show it to the group.

With the aim to make their Stanleys look as much like themselves as possible, we provided an array of hair-coloured tones of wool and plenty of coloured paper and pens.

While the children cut and glued, coloured and embellished, I read to them from the original Flat Stanley adventure. We loved how its old-fashioned phrases and Americanisms, with a totally different 'mailbox' from ours in the pictures, and Stanley's mum shouting "Shame!" to tell of one of the policemen who thought she was a bit "cuckoo" for dangling her son from a piece of string down through a drain cover.

As each child finished their Stanley they made an envelope for it and waved it goodbye. Some of them included a little note to share what they love most about their home town, (hopefully some of them included the library!)







https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
Then we used Google to see exactly where Ontario is, and zoomed in on Cobourg, which is on the northern shore of Lake Ontario and has a beautiful marina. Turns out there are some not-too-tiny lakes around there.

We also used Google Street View to go right down onto the pavement outside the C. Gordon King Centre where the library is based. http://www.cobourg.library.on.ca/

The kids looked at the brochures in turn and one little boy was thrilled to find out the kids in Canada has already gone back to school when he had a week left of holiday.

The Canadian Stanleys are now happily residing in our library, supporting an array of stories about Flat Stanley. 

Our own Stanleys will hopefully be arriving in Cobourg very soon, along with lots of information about the Hayridge Centre, Cullompton and wider Devon, as well as some library goodies, such as stickers, boomarks, pens, mugmats, and colouring sheets.

Rhonda and I are planning to stay in touch and I definitely want to explore Canada one day.