August 14th Update... holding at 43 states!

Whoops!  Looks like I goofed on the last post.  We already have one from Oklahoma... but we still need from Nebraska.  

So, it sounds as though one is on its way from Alaska, and one from New Mexico.  That means just five more!!  Mississippi, Montana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Wyoming.  I do have a friend that can get me MN and WI, but it may arrive after school starts (but I'm okay with that).

Anyone out there in Mississippi, Nebraska or Wyoming?  That's all!!  Please help!  Can't end the project with 47 states.  :)

G, my youngest, and I did a little sorting yesterday.  We went through all of our postcards and piled them according to state and country.  It looked a little like this:

153 postcards so far!

After we did the sorting, we tackled the graphs.  Here is the country graph.... as you can see, Germany EXPLODED off the chart!  So far, we have 18 postcards from Germany, thanks to my awesome lifelong penpal friend Kathrin and her family!  Time to make a new sheet... we now have 17 countries represented!

And for the States:

I "tried" to do alphabetical order, but I was in a rush when writing the states (hmmm... should've made the kids write them in ABC order!!) and missed a few along the way.  Yes, it'll bug me enough as it is... don't rub it in.  Here's the first 30:

 And the second 20 (+1):

I may have a mini Math session with the younger two at the end to discuss the results and name the top ten states represented... y'know to jog those math brains before school begins in 20 days.

Just to give you an idea of what 153 postcards, stacked, looks like.   My idea of putting them all in a binder ring isn't going to work.  Hmmm..... suggestions?  I thought about an album, but I want to be able to read them, and most photo albums won't hold the size of some of these postcards.

BTW, I plan to keep these.  So for all of those that bought a postcard or two (or several), don't fret.  They'll be kept... and possibly used again someday once I get back into teaching full-time.

Here is the US Map... Soooooooo close!!

Here's a close-up shot of where most of the cards have come, world-wide.  Notice the multi-colored Europe.  None from Spain or Scandinavia... surprising.  But we got North America covered!

And just to show there were from other parts of the world... here's Dubai and Australia!  What a shame that no one we know is adopting from Asia this summer.  :(  

We have friends that have visited other interesting locations in the world this summer, but usually their circumstances didn't allow for postcards.  We completely understand.  We've known of missionaries to Bolivia and Haiti, and of adoption trips to Ethiopia.  Both sorts are very important trips where a frivolous trip to the souvenir stands isn't on the agenda.

We made an observation, when looking at the map, that it would be great to get at least one from each continent.  In that case, we need Africa and South America.  Anyone going to South America?

And Africa?  Hmmmm.... maybe that one cousin who currently lives in South Africa.....?  Gotta get on her.  :)

If you made it this far in the post, thank you so much for your interest.  The kids and I have had a great time so far collecting the postcards.  A great big, huge, gigantic THANK YOU goes out to all who have participated, or who plan to participate.  Spread the word, especially if you happen to know anyone is those missing states.  

I'll keep you "posted" as things progress.