Peter Kent's Engaging Historical Books

One thing lead to another and we ended up with four of Peter Kent's books (borrowed from the library). Peter Kent is the author and illustrator of these great books that are engaging my son so thoroughly. They are a great way to provide simple historical overviews as a supplement or introduction.


















Hidden Under the Ground: The World Beneath Your Feet
Complete with a table of contents, this fascinating book takes the reader on a journey through time and into underground spaces. Lots of trivia is interspersed with his detailed drawings. The usual and obvious under worlds are covered: caves, caverns, a tomb, and animal habitats. However, he gets creative and includes afterlife underworlds (middle ages perspective), cliff dwellings, hidden rockets, power plants, the street beneath our feet, and dungeons. Throughout the pages are questions to engage the reader into the pictures. The questions are mostly searching for 'how many' of something.
This book has a table of contents, introduction, a glossary, and an answers section.



Great Buildings: Stories of the Past
After the introduction, Kent takes the reader to the great pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Beauvais Cathedral, the Eddystone Lighthouse, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Panama Canal, the Woolworth building, the Chek Lap Kok airport, and finishes off with a summary of seven more great buildings of the world. The buildings that are focused on are covered over two double page layouts with lots of pictures and interesting facts.
 This book has a table of contents, introduction, and an index.























Peter Kent's City Across Time: From the Stone Age to the Distant Future

This was one of my son's favourites. He enjoyed seeing the progression of cities from the old stone age through the ages to modern times and into the distant future. The detailed illustrations are what really brings this book to life as this book has the least amount of text out of the four books. However, what is said is still interesting.
This book has a table of contents, introduction, a glossary, an index, and further information. The further info are online sources of information that complement what was covered in the book.



Peter Kent's Big Book of Armor: From Armadillos to Armored Cars
This was my son's favourite and he even wants to buy his own copy. Again, this is where Kent gets creative and really investigates what can be included as armor. The usual armor, throughout the ages, is discussed and illustrated in detail, but he also goes into safety suits, armored vehicles, forts, athletic gear, and animal armor.
This book has a table of contents, introduction, a glossary, an index, and further information. The added information here are lists of where to see the various armor, tanks, ships, trains, and forts in their museums around the world.


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Geography: Postcrossing!

Almost everyone has heard about penpals or has had one, this is fairly common place. And even postcard trading is familiar to most. However, have you heard of post crossing?


While checking out some other blogs, I came across Make Geography Come Alive with Wall Maps! by OMSH. I love maps. My son loves maps. So I read it with interest as she explained how her family used the new maps they bought. If you check it out, you'll see how they've put the maps onto cork boards in order to use pins and string to connect photos with places. I'd love to do this, but I need to find some cork boards first  ;-)

As November was Geography Month, OMSH solicited readers to post comments of how they explore the subject of geography with their children. It was within these comment posts that the mystery of Postcrossing was revealed to me.

Postcrossing, the postcard crossing project: "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!"

Really, it's that simple. And free to sign up.
A well organised website, postcrossing.com, details all the FAQ.

But it's just trading postcards, right?
Wrong.

Postcards From Russia

Although you can login to the forum, separate from the official sight, and participate in all kinds of trading and tagging (themed trades whereby you tag the person who posted before you and then wait to be tagged), the official site is not about trading at all.

The official Postcrossing.com site is not a typical trading site. Here's how it works...

1)  You sign up for free, set your preferences, and create a profile to whatever extent you wish. Part of this set up is providing the site with your mailing address, but it is not displayed publicly.

2) You "request" an address and postcard ID! The site will give you an address, an ID for that postcard, and the profile information of the person you are sending the card to. You can read the profile and get a sense of the kinds of postcards the person likes. You may choose to send a postcard that they would prefer, but you may send whatever you have. However! The whole point here is to make sure you write the postcard ID on it. I always write the ID in two different place to be sure it doesn't get obscured or misread. The recipient will register receiving the card using this ID. Only once your postcard has been received can you start expecting a postcard in return!

Add caption

3) Receive a postcard. Once the website has confirmed that your postcard has been received and registered, your profile name and address goes to the top of the list! But your address is still not publicly displayed; this "list" is not something everybody can see. Now, someone will "request" an address and it will be yours. This means you are not receiving a postcard from the person you originally sent a card to. You are going to receive a random card from some random person who will be given your mailing address when they request an address. I love this randomness!

4) Register the postcard received. Admire your new postcard sent by some stranger miles away, read any messages written, enjoy the foreign stamps, then hop online, log in, and register the postcard as received. Write a thank you, short or long. And you're done!

5) Repeat! Request another address, write on the postcard, include the ID, and send. It gets addictive actually, before you know it, you're broke ;-)  In the beginning, you are restricted to five address requests; you can have up to five postcards travelling at any given time. The more you send and prove your participation (your postcards do get received and registered), the more you are permitted to have travelling.

Our Geography Wall!

From Russia

See, the beauty of this whole project, beyond the obvious objectives, is that you are ultimately in control over how much and when. There is no obligation or commitment! I love that! I'm a terrible correspondent; I'll always come through in the end, but that end might be a year later. If I have time and the postcard/stamps, I can send a card and then eventually receive one back (theoretically, barring postal mishaps). Furthermore, I do not have to respond to any of the postcards I receive as I've already sent out my postcard! The only thing I'm obligated to do is to register receiving the postcard with the ID on the card. I do however write a comment of thanks to the sender (done as part of the registering of the postcard).

Some other aspects to this game...

This Was From Lithuania

Often people scan the postcards. They collect them in reality and virtually. I haven't bothered to do this yet and may never take the time to do it. However, I still have scanned postcards on my "postcard wall!" Some are the scanned postcards that were sent to me-- if someone scans their card and sends it by mail, when I register it with the ID, it virtually becomes mine too. Also, several people have scanned the postcards we've sent them as I can now see them on my postcard wall under "sent" postcards, lol.

Our Latest Addition Is From Luxemburg

Map Another function is the global map that will document all that you successfully send and receive with little flags indicating the locations with lines from your city to theirs. The global map is interactive and you can zoom in and out of it. The little flags are click-able and will reveal such details as location and the profile link to that sender/recipient.

Stats A stats page exhibits your activity in graph form, pie chart, and a table. How much you've sent and received, to or from which countries, and how long the postcard travelled are a few of the items displayed here.

Forum There is a forum you can sign up for too and it is somewhat separate from the official website. In here you can organise and participate in all kinds of discussions and other forms of trade, even trading items other than postcards.

What a fun way to learn about other cultures and geography!

Idea: Flat Travllers, aka Flat Stanley

Our Flat Claydee

In 1964, Jeff Brown (1926-2003) wrote a children's book and called it Flat Stanley. He followed this with Stanley in Space, Stanley and the Magic Lamp, Invisible Stanley, Stanley's Christmas Adventure, Stanley Flat Again, and Stanley and the Haunted House. Sara Pennypacker is continuing to write about this flat character in her series, Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures. 

Basically, Stanley, a young boy gets flattened by a bulletin board that had been hung above his bed. In his healthy, but flattened state, Stanley learns he can do all kinds of things he couldn't do before. One of these things is being mailed in an envelope to friends in other parts of the country.

Our Flat Weluvca Pointing to Edmonton, Alberta

And this begins the real-time saga of flat travellers worldwide! I'm not going to get into the whole history of who began what, suffice it to say, teachers and students and parents and children everywhere now can exchange flat travellers for a specified amount of time. This exchange is great for learning about other people, other places, and other cultures; it's akin to pen palling without the long term commitment. There are many ways to do this and certain groups have certain rules, so it's best to read the rules of the site or yahoo group.

This is how we have done it...

First of all, the flat travellers, also called flatties!

Flat Chae Rim from South Korea

We've made several paper travellers over the years. Some were hand drawn by my son, some were printed off from the Internet, others were paper dolls; flatties can be human, alien, animal, insect, abstract, or whatever appeals to you. All of ours were either laminated or taped up with packing tape to increase the flattie's durability and longevity. Oh, but before laminating/taping, it is advisable to write on the back some pertinent information: flattie's name, your name, and your mailing address and email. This will help the host family in the event they accidentally misplace the original envelope and email address.   

Now to hook up with someone!

Flatties Help Shovel Snow

Using one of the yahoo groups (a few of which are now dead), we would find a compatible family else where in the world and, with them, set up our own rules via email. We would discuss time lengths and any special requirements or requests. And, of course, exchange addresses to execute our plans.

In the beginning we did choose to take on our new guests, tour the flatties around with us while taking pictures of the flattie in various locations, and write up a journal and send the flatties back with extras. This proved overly time consuming and costly.

Flat Amina & Flat Guard on Vacation with Us

So, we eventually made arrangements with the other family to avoid the written journal and provide a blog instead. Our flat guest would arrive in the mail and we'd tour it around with us and show the flattie what we did each day. All this would end up in the private blog. At the end of the time period, we would pack up the flattie with extras and send him/her/it home. The great thing about blogging is that the flattie's family can see right away that the flattie is safe and if the flattie is having fun, and it's free!

Other Things...

More Flat Guests

We made up a questionnaire to either send along with the flattie or to email to the host family. It was a list of basic questions about the host family, their preferences and interests, and their location. We even sent an intro letter about our family and the story of the particular flattie we were sending.

Extras?

Well, often this is just an extra. And this shouldn't be expected and isn't necessary to participate. We, however, enjoy sending home some treats with our guests. This can be anything. Post cards, pamphlets, stickers, maps, books, little toys, something homemade, etc. We usually think of things that are local or otherwise reflect who we are. Extras can be as little or as big as you can afford or wish to send. Um, as long as it complies with the postal rulings for both your own country and that of the guest flattie's.