The Return of Flat Stanley

Look who's back!  Yes, after Polly's Flat Stanley suffered a very unfortunate injury on his visit to Brunei, another child has bravely entrusted his beloved Flat Stanley to my care!

This Stanley comes courtesy of the lovely Hayden, who was also in my class last year.  Hayden's Mum is a great photographer and creates the annual Lewknor School calendar which is sold to the parents, and she kindly put in a copy of the 2011 calendar for me, along with Flat Stanley.  I was really touched by this; how very kind.

Inevitably I have been super-careful with this Stanley - no monkeying around for us!  This sign at the supermarket seemed to sum it up very well...

Yes, we will!

However, we did have one very close shave...  Stanley was in my handbag which I had carelessly left unattended.  I looked across to see a monkey with his hand in it!?  My first thought was not for my wallet, or my phone, but that I would be mortified to have to tell yet another child that I had allowed their Flat Stanley to be attacked!  Thankfully the monkey was only after something to eat - he polished off a packet of sweets that was in the pocket of the bag:

Lucky escape Stanley!!  But not so lucky for the monkey... let's take a closer look at that packet:

In case that's a little small, they were sugar-free sweets and the packet says 'excessive consumption may induce laxative effects'.  Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!  That's what I call karma.

Anyway, Stanley's been to the beach with us,

and paddled in the sea.

He's been sightseeing at one of the city's huge mosques,

and visited Selirong Island - an island covered in amazing Mangrove swamps (reached by a rather scary hour-long boat trip.  Rather scary when there's a storm brewing anyway - we seriously thought the boat was in danger of capsizing...  another innovative way to damage poor Flat Stanley!)

He's made cupcakes with me - Funfetti of course:

 and helped with the supper preparation.

Of course, he came into school too, and was a great help with lots of our lessons!

Collecting data about the colours of Smarties to make frequency-tables and bar charts!

Looking at plants (and wildlife!) in the school grounds.

 

Finding seeds in various fruits (then eating the fruit of course!)

Very amusingly, and rather brilliantly I thought, the girls in the class decided that Stanley needed a new wardrobe!  Before long he had a school uniform, a PE kit, several sets of shorts/t-shirts, and a traditional Malay outfit, complete with sinjang (coloured fabric around the waist) and songkok (hat)!

Here's Stanley modelling his Malay clothing, alongside his school uniform and PE kit:

He also has a swimming costume (most kids here wear the long-legged, long-sleeve style to protect them from the sun) and, rather worryingly, a pair of what appear to be leopard-skin pants..!

Hmmm, interesting!  I'm sure Hayden will be very amused by Stanley's (flat) suitcase full of clothes. 

Stanley's off home tomorrow, complete with a diary full of photos, his new clothes, some sweets for the class to share and a few little presents for Hayden.

Safe journey Stanley!