Flat Stanley, Flat Travelers… and now Standikins!
by Marian in 2011, updated in 2026
What's flat and adventurous and travels the world by mail?
What about Flat Stanley? He's from a children's book by Jeff Brown, about a boy who gets flattened by a bulletin board that falls on him. When he wants to visit friends far away, his parents just send him in an envelope!
The Flat Stanley Project
This story gave an Ontario schoolteacher an idea. He started the Flat Stanley Project so that classes from different schools could send each other a paper Flat Stanley and do all kinds of learning in a really fun way. The class that's being the host writes down Stanley's adventures and then sends him and his journal back to the original class.
Flat Travelers
Homeschoolers have had their own version of the Flat Stanley project. It was called Flat Travelers (that's the American spelling). Like Flat Stanley, a Flat Traveler is a laminated paper character that gets sent to other families for a "visit" and comes home with a log of their adventures, some photos of them in their travels, outings, and activities, and sometimes some other souvenirs. It's a fun way to learn a bunch of stuff -- and make some friends at the same time!
There used to be a Flat Travelers Homeschool yahoogroup where homeschool families could find other families from around the world, who all wanted to send and host Flat Travelers. Nowadays, there doesn't seem to be a dedicated group for it, but you can make arrangements with other homeschooling families through general homeschooling Facebook groups.
... and now Standikins!
The thing is, though, that Flat Stanleys and Flat Travelers really are totally flat. They need to be propped up when they have their picture taken in the real world. I thought it would be a good idea to make “flat” travellers who could stand on their own. So I went ahead and created a new kind of Traveller, with a stand. I call them Standikins.
The first Standikin that is available is the same kind of creature as my friend Boopity. What do you think? Is it a boy or a girl? A visitor from another planet, or a creature from a magical place? What’s its name? The great thing is, YOU get to decide!
Here's where you can download the sheet to colour and cut out (save the image file). The copyright is still mine, but you have permission to make as many copies as you want as long as you don't sell it or change the sheet before you copy it (especially the copyright and URL information). The only change you can make to the file is if you don't want to colour by hand, you can colour it in some paint software before printing, instead.
Where will your Flat Travellers and Standikins go on their travels? Wherever it is, it's bound to be an adventure!