One of the many, many, MANY things I love about Juniper is her love of learning. Or I should say, obsession with learning. It’s her favorite thing. After dinner, sometimes we’ll sit in the living room and ask her what she wants to learn about. She’ll think real hard for a minute and then say “Lights, bones, and counting”, or a random mix of other random things. And then Shaun and I will tell her everything we know about each topic and she’ll just sit there and absorb it all.

One of her favorite topics right now is America. She loves the American flag, and excitedly points it out every time we pass one. (In fact, she asked for a star party because of all the stars on the flag. She’s REALLY EXCITED about her star party. Her birthday is in December!) We’ve talked a lot about all of the states. She thinks America looks like a big chicken leg, and Florida is the bone. (My illustration may have been a bit sloppy and quick!) We talk about all of the people we know who live in each state, and how long it takes to drive all the way to visit Mima in Connecticut.

So, I found this online service that will send your child an “adventure pack” each month with a bunch of information about each state. I thought, Juniper would love that! But then I saw the price tag and quickly changed my opinion. I’m not going to spend almost $200 on something I can put together myself. (The curse of a creative person…) So here’s the plan. I’m going to put together my own version of these state packets for Juniper as a birthday present. On her birthday she’s going to get a big map poster with all the states grayed out, a big book to collect info, and an envelope for the first state. In each envelope there will be information about that state, a print out of the state flag (she’s going to love that part!), and a little state picture she can glue on the big map that way we can keep track of which states we’ve learned about. I ordered a ton of free travel brochures for all of the states that we’ll cut pictures from to glue into her big notebook. We’ll give her a new envelope every week or so and work our way through all 50 states.

Does that all make sense? It’s going to be a lot of work, gathering and organizing all of the information. I even made a spreadsheet. Things just got serious up in here. So, in typical ME fashion, I went and made it even more complicated. I thought “How cool would it be to get a letter from someone living in each state?” And the answer is, it would be SO cool! What kid doesn’t love getting mail? Juniper for one, is obsessed with mail. (She’s obsessed with a lot of things, haha)

So here is where I am needing some help. There are a lot of states, and I don’t know someone who lives in each one. I’ve emailed a handful of people and I have several states taken care of. But there are so many more! If you have a spare minute and would like to mail my kids a letter/postcard/note talking about what it is like to live in your state, I would greatly appreciate your help. Shoot me an email and we’ll work out the details. I will gladly accept more than one letter from each state, the more the better!

Wow that was a long post. I tend to ramble. I’m just excited about this project!!! I’ll be sharing updates on my Instagram account, under the hashtag #projectjuniperusa.