Flat Stanley Will Have A Remarkable Time With Grammie Elita and Grandpa Jerry

Stanley is just your regular, three-dimensional boy when -- SPLAT -- a bulletin board falls on him. As his brother Arthur figures out a way to make him round again, Stanley explores the benefits of being dimensionally challenged. He gets rolled up, mailed, and flown like a kite. He even finds a way to catch some sneaky museum thieves! Witty depictions of being a half-inch thick and the wacky storyline have made this book a favorite among grade-school children.

This is a review of a set of books I had never heard of until it became a project in my grandson Ethan’s first grade classroom. They had to choose a family member or members to receive a card type picture of Stanley all folded up. In the envelope was a note from their teacher explaining that we had to take Stanley around with us to various spots in our town and show him many things. We have to send him back in an envelope with pictures of where he was taken and what we showed him. We will take pictures and send them with his card picture of him and explain in a letter where he went and what he did.

Since writing is my vocation, I will type up a nice story and send photos if we went to the hair salon, we went to eat at the Nautilis Diner as we usually do once a week, if we went to the mall etc. It is a cute way to involve the children in the activities of their grandparents or if they have none; of maybe an aunt or uncle or a family friend. From this, the children in the class will learn about their classmate’s family and friends and about places ‘Stanley was taken on his visit to us in Baltimore.’ The children in the class all live in Virginia, so our taking of Flat Stanley will be to different journeys here in Ethan’s grandparent’s home town.

This is a good learning and educational project and a very clever way to introduce first graders mostly about six to six and half years of age to different aspects of life. The child had to print a letter to us and it read as follows:

Dear Gramy and Grempop,

You haf to tac flat Ethan (they call Stanley by their name) to plasis and rite me a letter bac. And the flat Ethan too. From Ethan

They had to explain to the recipient of their letter what to do.

Teaching children how to express themselves is a great part of their young lives.Teaching teens how to express themselves and not to imitate the words of rapper songs is something that is a must for our teens. I am not a teacher and do not know how one goes about this; but I see on Facebook many comments made not as intelligent as six year old Ethan expressed himself. I realize that on Facebook, texting and even on emails, it is hard on the fingers and we all abbreviate words. However, you can still express yourself even if you have to shorten the spelling of the words.

My doctor was telling me about a heart test I took and he said “your heart is a big heart and not oversized.” He meant that I have a good heart physically and mentally. He said this test was not remarkable. I said “Gee, I always thought I was remarkable.” So in medical language it is good, it seems to be not remarkable on some tests. Remarkable meaning bad, I guess and not remarkable in this case is better. He said “it is smart to be in the know. but don’t get caught up in the minutia. Be mindful of the big picture or language and don’t sweat the small stuff.” This is logical advice, but so many people now days do not even know their cholesterol number or the blood pressure numbers and that is a dangerous attitude to have. Knowing these numbers can save your life and even though you cannot be Flat Stanley or Flat Elita or whatever your name is; you should be aware of medical notes about yourself in case you need to tell someone in an emergency. You should keep these numbers along with your emergency numbers in your wallet for emergency necessities. When we were in the auto accident in 2008 and went to the hospital, they asked all kind of questions on the medicines you take, the tests you may have had previously etc. If you get in that situation, you could become forgetful from the stress and if you can pull your wallet out and recite them to the person taking the information, this will be helpful to you and them.

Flat Stanley is going around with us to visit restaurants, salons, movies, malls and stores. He will behave himself because he knows that Grammie Elita will report back about his behavior and attitude in her story on him to Ethan, his teacher and all the first graders in his class. He wants to come off being a good youngster, so he gets the chance to keep on traveling to different cities and visiting grandparents, relative and or friends everywhere.

Flat Stanley is a good boy and has lots of adventures and so will the children in the class be learning lots of his escapades and all the fun he will be involved in from all the places he goes with everyone the children in the class sent the letters to in  their family .

A simple thing like this involves impressionable youngster to gain knowledge about different cities and various modes of getting around in their young lives.

We took our children traveling when they were young. They went to Hawaii, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Caribbean islands, Disney World, Disneyland, Williamsburg, New York and Florida. We felt this more educational than sending them off to sleepover camps. They traveled and learned and had fun doing so. They even went on a cruise when they were thirteen and seventeen. This is a nice way to be with them, to engage in new activities with them and mostly to become worldly. We felt it an intelligent way to spend the money we would have laid out for sleepover camp and since they were not interested in that mode of summertime; I picked out sights for them to become travelers.

They can say they have been here and there and hopefully remember all the vacation sights with a pleasant and happy memory. We also took them to the ocean on another trip.

Do whatever you can afford with money or time and widen the world of your children and if you cannot go away, there are always museums close by and there is a great one in Philadelphia to visit. There are theme parks like Busch Gardens where we also went one year and many other fine theme areas that do not cost too much money to spend in a day trip. We went to Hershey Park and I can still smell the beautiful aroma of the chocolate as you approach the area. There is much to do and you need not go to foreign countries to attain knowledge, you can do it right in your own area.

Broaden the children and grandchildren’s world. I had a friend who each summer took one grandchild to Disney World in Florida. She had four grandkids and her husband had five. It took them nine years of going there and they did not get bored because each child viewed it in their own manner and so the two grandparents enjoyed the same vacation spot over and over.

So we will take Flat Stanley or Flat Ethan as was written on Stanley’s cardboard type picture sent to us and show him a good time in the confines of our area in Baltimore. Assuming most of the children’s grandparents and or family and friends reside in Virginia;, then little six and half year old Ethan will have Stanley visiting Maryland and Stanley will become very worldly and smart. We hope Flat Stanley likes Grammie and Grandpa and decides to visit again soon.

As remarkable in a test is not so great, but Stanley’s visit to Baltimore will surely be remarkable in the good meaning. I heard this expression recently “when your legs start to get tired, run with your heart.”

We can run with our heart and enjoy all that there is to see and when our legs get tired from the walking there, our hearts will be feeling extraordinary, phenomenal and exceptional which are also other words for remarkable. Remarkable in that perception being excellent. Life is like a library and full of things to explore, love and find happiness all the time. Life is indeed remarkable.