Getting Caught Up!

Well, it's the new year. I reckon this one will go by faster than last year.
We read a great book Monday called "Mailing May" by Michael O. Tunnell. Ted Rand illustrated it and I love, love , love Ted Rand's illustrations. It is a great story of ingenuity. May is a little girl who wants to go visit her Grandmother Mary who, unfortunately lives across the mountains in Idaho. The only way to get there is by train and May's parents can't afford a train ticket. So her father hatches an ingenious plan. He decides to mail May to her Grandmothers. He takes her to the post office, they weigh her, and put a stamp and an address label on her. Her uncle is the mailsorter on the train and she boards with him and makes it to Grandma's house. The best part, this story is absolutely true! It really happened. It was charming and the kids loved it. So we've centered some activities around the book. Lillie is embarking on a 50 states notebook, using the literature we read as a guideline. The book took place in Idaho, so she completed a notebooking page for Idaho. You can get a blank of the notebooking page here and some great info on a 50 states unit from Jimmie here. Here's a pic of the page she completed...

We made our cards for our story journal pockets...

Well, it stands to reason, that while reading the story, the thought came to me...How much would it cost to mail each of my children to their grandparents. Since both sets live about the same distance, it's safe to bet the price would be similar. So....I got on the USPS website and they have a postage calculator for non rectangular packages. I made each child a sheet and we got to measuring and weighing each other. Here's the pics...

The results: To ship Chloe to her Nannie's or her Mimi's would be $14.00 for 1 day priority mail.

To send Lillie would cost $22.85

Jackson came in as the most expensive with a rate of $24.40

Grandparents! Watch the mail...it can get awfully noisy here at my house!

I've started more organized work with Jack this year. He's working on an ABC Scrapbook...

He did 4 worksheets today and he's so proud...

Jack has shown alot of interest in cooking and he's been becoming quit the little pancake maker!


Hope everyone's year is goin good so far! Blessings, Della