Shaylogo
  1. synergy:
  2. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
  3. Cooperative interaction that creates an enhanced combined effect.
  1. field:
  2. A wide unbroken expanse.
  3. An area of human activity or interest.
  4. A region of space characterized by a physical property, such as gravitational or electromagnetic force or fluid pressure, having a determinable value at every point in the region.

Travel Buddies

A few years ago, my daughters and I took care of an elephant for two weeks. Eleanor Elephant is a travel buddy, a small visitor that arrives by mail. Our pachyderm guest was handmade by a family in another state. She wore a straw hat, and a dress splashed with bright sunflowers.

I found an announcement about the opportunity to host Eleanor on an e-mail list. I asked my kids if they thought it would be interesting, and they agreed, so I wrote back.

Eleanor Elephant

Three weeks later, Eleanor arrived with a little album of photos and postcards about her family and home state. She also brought a one-use camera, so we could take pictures of her visit with us and mail the camera back to her family as we mailed Eleanor on to her next host family.

Caitlin, Laurel and I had a lot of fun toting Eleanor wherever we went, taking photos of her in various places, and introducing her to our friends. She helped us harvest our bountiful crops of cherries and cucumbers that summer, and toured the greenhouse at a local historic garden. We even took her with us to the lakeside beach where we gathered with our homeschool friends for a picnic and a swim.

Photo:Eleanor takes a break from gardening to have her photo op. When this picture was taken, Caitlin was 9 years old and Laurel was 6.

Our agreement as a host family included writing about Eleanor's adventures, as well as collecting information about our home state, Virginia. We gathered some postcards of historic sites and scenic views, looked up data about our state's square mileage, population, agricultural products and more, then put it all together to send to Eleanor's family. They developed the film and posted pictures on their Web site, along with passages from what we wrote about the elephant's visit. This was a fun way to follow Eleanor's further adventures, as well as to see what we contributed to her travel experience.

If you would like to share the fun of learning about other people and places, why not try launching a travel buddy of your own? The links below can give you ideas and inspiration.

-Shay

About Travel Buddies
Covers every aspect of travel buddies: creating, mailing, finding participants, what to send with your buddy, keeping in touch, hosting a buddy, and more.

Traveling Buddies
Offers additional ideas for choosing your buddy, communication options and more.

The Flat Stanley Project
In the book, "Flat Stanley," by Jeff Brown, Stanley is squashed flat by a falling bulletin board. One of the many advantages is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by traveling in an envelope. See photos of this travel buddy in Afghanistan, Scotland, Russia, and with various heads of state and TV personalities.

Global SchoolNet's Travel Buddies Page
Register your collaborative travel buddy project online



(c) 2003, 2005 Shay Seaborne. All rights reserved. Originally published in the October 2003 issue of HEM's Online Newsletter