digital stanley

It seems to be tradition that in the second grade you read Flat Stanley and do a project. (If you aren't familiar with the book, Stanley wakes up one morning, flattened by his large bulletin board, which has fallen on top of him. While there are some problems, he discovers some perks too, such as getting to be mailed to his friend's home across the country.) The kids make a paper copy of Flat Stanley and mail him to someone they know. That person is supposed to gather information about their town, take photos of Stanley at famous places in town, and educate the second grade class about where Stanley visited.

Pook came home with his project in April and I glanced through my address book for potential victims agreeable friends or family members. Oooh! CD's sister and family are living in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates! And, she's a teacher with young enough kids to get into a project like this! Extra postage notwithstanding, it was perfect. Off he went.

I decided that the story about Stanley could be updated. (Pook is uninterested in writing this, so I guess it's up to me.) How about, instead of a bulletin board falling on him, a flat screen monitor squashed him? Then, instead of becoming flat, he could become digitized! I suggested to CD's sister that she simply email photos of Stanley back to us instead of mailing it all snail mail. It would save time and money.

Stanley's photos arrived last week and I promptly sent them all in to be printed. She'd put captions with each and Winkflash actually prints them on the back, simplifying the process. We printed out her email as a narrative and he presented his project to the class yesterday. He sounded proud of his project, and as enthusiastic as Pook ever gets about school presentations. (Standing before a crowd not being his forte.)

To summarize J, L and S's work for Pook:

The distance between Abu Dhabi, UAE and Atlanta, Georgia, USA is 7591 miles.

Tourist Stanley went first to the Corniche, a stretch of beach, gardens, and walkways running along the edge of Abu Dhabi island. He was wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt that says "Abu Dhabi", jeans and tennis shoes for his tour. It was hot, about 93 degrees, but breezy and not humid.

After leaving the Corniche, we went to see the Emirates Palace-- a very elegant and expensive hotel.


After lunch, Stanley wanted to play at the beach and changed into swim trunks and an Abu Dhabi cap. Abu Dhabi has lovely beaches, with clear calm water. Some of the beaches are on the Corniche, and those cost a little money to go to, but they also have nice bathrooms! The beach we went to with Stanley doesn't cost anything, but it also doesn't have any bathrooms! On a hot day, it's nice to cool off in the water and play in the sand. We didn't stay too long, though. We forgot the sunscreen!


Stanley decided he wanted to dress in the traditional Arab clothes, called a dishdash and a head scarf. Once he was looking like an Emirati, he wanted to do more traditional things. So we went to the desert to play in the sand dunes. There are still people who travel in the desert using camels, so Stanley got his picture taken next to one that was full of rugs, chests, and packages. He had to be careful because camels will spit if they are mad!

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Thank you Aunt J, L and S! We know Stanley had a great time! We'll work on digitizing ourselves next!