Before I could tell you that this package arrived, she has already received her second - from the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil! And the souvenirs were a hit! An amethyst stone from a "mine in Maraba," a photo of a red uakari monkey, and a wooden toucan puzzle. She also received a letter and stickers to post on her luggage, passport and map - Ava and I examined the globe to find exactly where the souvenirs were from.
This is such a great idea - I kick myself for not coming up with the idea first. It's so easy to replicate and make one at home. You can find these suitcases (set of 3 for $20) online at The Land of Nod, and fill with a penned letter, and souvenirs from a country you'd like to study as a family. Souvenirs can be picked up on Amazon or your local dollar store - whether its rocks, a musical instrument, or a doll wearing national clothing - the opportunities are endless!
So this month, we'll be exploring Brazil... and sharing with you more very soon!
Hi!! I'm Gaby from Argentina, I have a girl of 5 named India, and I just read this post and the one where you mention you have correspondance with your friend who moved to Brazil, and I had the idea to make something similar but with real kids! I love to write letters, I remember the feeling when the postman arrived with news from friends from other countries. I lived in Brasil and Europe and I know people from different parts so, I was thinking that, may be, we can create a "Club for little explorers" and we can exchange correspondance with pictures, souvenirs, books, chats, and so on....What do you think? Could this be a good idea?!!!! I'll be waitting your comment!!
ReplyDeleteHi Gabby! Thanks so much for stopping by and finding this post. I absolutely LOVE this idea and think this is such a great way to share and really teach our kids about different parts of the world by actually communicating through writing, drawings, and even sharing small souvenirs and such.
ReplyDeleteI actually thought of how I could do this when I got started, so I did some online research, and there are some companies that offer a pen pal service exchange between students from various countries for a small fee. But that was just letters, and more appropriate for school age children.
But this could work for those of us with younger children if we got a group of trusted mommy bloggers from all over the world to agree to exchange addresses so that we could do this.
There is always the issue of privacy and making sure that the people involved are "trustworthy" - giving out addresses can be kind of scary if you don't know the people. Which is why this company - Little Explorers - feels safe. It's one company (2 moms) that purchase the items and send out, making it appear that it came other countries. (Of course, kids won't know the commercialized part).
It would take a lot of coordinating to find interested families, but if done right - this could be a huge success! Maybe we start with a Flickr group where we take pictures of what we'll be sending, so that we can see beforehand? And then let parents choose who they want to begin exchanging with on their own, and once that's established, they can keep communicating back and forth, or move on to someone else from a different country... I haven't really thought of it all the way through - but Gabby, if you can pull it off - go for it!
You sound like you're a mom who would make this fun and creative - let me know what you decide either way! Thanks again for writing!
I completely understand what do you mean about exchange addresses. I was thinking about a simple idea, may be, 6 or 7 families, blogger moms may be (I have a friend from Brasil who lives in Spain with twins that, may be, she can be interested) and exchange letters, pictures, etc, may be, one time per month. If you want to talk about this in private, contact me by my blog (contact section) and I can send you my personal email and we can talk from there and begin to think about this proyect!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your interest!!!! I'm so excited!!
I just send an email to your personal account!!
ReplyDelete:-)