Clarification...

Hi Swappers,
We received an email yesterday from a mom wondering if both her children should pick a friend to send to their partners two children or if the family should collaborate. This is a really good question. Originally we had pictured each family doing one friend/ scrapbook to send to another family. So we will say that is the minimum that must be done. BUT, this is where you can individualize your swap. If you want to customize the number of friends you take on your adventure with the number of children in your recipient's family then that is allowed. Just make sure you both agree. We have been talking behind the scenes about some of the advantages we see to both ideas and will list those here at the end of this post. Both ways of doing it are great. Secondly, we did receive a request to enter one family's children multiple times. (One partner for each child in the family.) If this was something you would like to see we wanted to explain why we do family groups instead. When reading through how we make pairs you will see that we take the number of children in the family into account. We used family groups in the first round and noticed that moms with more than one child or moms sending to more than one child were very sensitive to each child and including everyone. It worked so well that we kept it the same way this round. The other reason is that if we were to pair every child individually it would mean a lot more work for us, plus a lot more spent in postage for families with more than one child participating. Also the moms would be spread so thin that building cross country relationships would probably not happen as much as it did the first round. If you have any more questions feel free to ask. We are more than happy to take your suggestions and to clarify what runs through our minds.

Benefits to sending multiple friends to a family: Each child gets to express their creativity and interpret the scrapbook how they want. Each child receives a "friend."

Benefits to sending one "friend" from a family to another family: Siblings learn to collaborate and incoorporate their ideas into a cohesive theme that flows. Sharing is encouraged. Less stress and to do on your trip.

Both ways are good and whichever way you choose you now have reasons so you can feel comfortable talking through with your partner what you choose to do. We would love to hear what you decide. Please post in the comments to this post how you are approaching the swap.
Happy Swapping, Meg and Mag

Partners!

Thank you to everyone for introducing yourself! It is fun to get to know everyone and see where you are headed. Mag and her son did a map last time. They are planning on posting another one this time. Maybe they will even be able to include travel destinations.

You should have received and email letting you know who your partner is. Email us if you didn't get it and it is not in your spam folder. This is where the fun begins. Remember the swap guidelines are just a minimum and you can add and personalize the swap however you want within those parameters. Or you can use them as a jumping off point and up the stakes. Just make sure both you and your partner are both whole heartedly in agreement. Also make sure that you are including all the swap requirements.

We thought you might like to know how we make the pairs. We paired you based on these items in this order:
1. Who your previous partner was if you had one, or who you already knew.
2. Children are older or younger
3. Number of children in family
4. Where you live, making sure it is not next to each other.
5. Travel month.

If a mistake happened we are so sorry. We do our best. This time we tried to simplify things for ourselves by not including individual ages or genders. Next time we may throw the ages back into the mix because it helps narrow it down some. If you have suggestions please take note of them and give them to us at the end when we send out the exit surveys. We hope you all have fun this round. We had tons of fun last time.

About all of You!!!

Well, here we are sign ups are closed and we are in round two officially! We thought you might like to know a little bit about our group:
There are 9 pairs being made and one mama sitting out to have a baby. 8 of you are repeaters from round 1.

A lot of you found us through the swapdex website and then the rest through random connections.

The busiest travel month for our group is July.


The person who is farthest away is in Australia, we think her partner will be mighty lucky to get some very exotic treats. Isn't it opposite season's there? So maybe we have a summer/ winter swap. ;)

We have people from these states: California, Washington, North Carolina, Tennessee, Washington D.C., Idaho, Utah, Alabama, New York, New Hampshire, West Virgina, Oregon, Montana, and Michigan.

Fourteen people have blogs. (Lots of neat info on them, check the sidebar)

So we are off to a good start and should have lots of fun. Hopefully that will help everyone get their mind off the crazy weather we are having this summer from snow in Montana yesterday, to fires in California, and heat waves, on the east coast. Look for your partner's info in your email box this weekend. And check back here often for announcements, contests, and info on the other swappers. :)

Sign Ups Are OPEN!!!

Did you see the new swap sign up?  We are up to 5 people now!  Last time there was a big rush at the end.  This time we are hoping to have the maximum number allowed!  To entice you to sign up we wanted to let you know some of the things going on behind the scenes.  We have been chatting and thought it might be fun to have some giveaways this summer.  Sort of like a contest but with a random draw instead of judging.  We know with this group it would be too hard to judge.  Small prizes, but lots to keep you interested since this is a longer swap!  Plus having giveaways means extra mail!  So get your emails in, we are getting underway!

For full instructions go here, or scroll down.  

Little People on the Road Swap

(We are keeping this post to the top for new people looking for the sign up info. Please scroll down to read the new introductions!)

You are invited to join the Little People on the Road Summer Swap. We thought it would be fun to do a travel themed swap for summer. It is for kids between 2 and 10-years-old. This swap is going to be a little bit more structured than before, but still open-ended enough to allow for lots of creativity.

The guidelines are as follows (please read through everything before signing up—some things have changed since last time):

1) In this swap, you will purchase or make a new stuffed animal or doll (high-quality please) that will become your traveling friend. It would be fun to name the friend and even create a personality for it. (Thank you to Joy for suggesting a similar idea!)
2) You will then take the friend with you on your travels or if you don’t plan to make any trips this summer, show the friend around your hometown.
3) Document your travels with the friend by taking pictures of him or her in different locations and doing different activities. You can include your family in the photos or just feature the friend. You can also have your child take the pictures and document the travel through their eyes.
4) Make a scrapbook/journal with the photos to send to your swap partner. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate and you can check the swap blog for cheap and easy ideas. You can also feel free to post your own ideas!
5) Get a souvenir from your travels or hometown to send to your swap partner. You can buy something or collect something such as shells, pinecones, flattened pennies from those machines, etc.
6) Buy or create an activity for your partner to do on their next trip. (It would also be fun to include a CD with fun car songs or anything else extra that is themey.) Check the swap blog for suggestions or add your own.
7) Also, if possible, send a postcard to your swap partner while on vacation. It would be a fun way to help the children introduce themselves to each other.



Things that should definitely be included in your package (this is the minimum):
• A scrapbook detailing the adventures of the friend you chose, as well as the friend itself.
• A souvenir from your travels or hometown.
• A travel activity for kids.
• A note, either written by your child(ren) or dictated and transcribed by an adult.

The commitment for this swap is (read carefully new items added!):
1) Introduce yourself on the swap blog, you don’t have to tell your mother’s maiden name, just a hello and something like we are excited and we are a family of 3, 4, 20 or whatever you want to share, pictures are great, but not required. We are requiring that you do this before partners are made because we would really like to create a community among all the swappers, and this is difficult to do without everyone’s participation. Let us know if you have never blogged before and need any help posting to the swap blog. You will not be partnered unless you have posted. (the swap blog is www.littlepeopleswap.blogspot.com)
2) E-mail your partner introducing your family and answering a few provided questions within a week or two of being paired.
3) One package shipped no later than August 31, but you and your partner can agree on an earlier date, depending on when you will both be finished traveling.
4) Post a thank you to your partner, preferably with pictures, on the swap blog. (We can help you figure out how to upload pictures too. If you do not have access to a digistial camera feel free to still sign up.)
5) Keep us updated if any problems come up during the swap through e-mail (not on the swap blog). We want to make sure everyone has a great swap experience, but can’t help if we don’t know what is going on.
If you choose to do any more that is up to you. But this is the minimum.

To join in send an email to megandmag(at)gmail(dot)com
Cut and Paste the following into your email and answer the questions:
1. Name:
2. Number of Children, also are most 2-6 or 6-10 in age:
3. Month of Travel (or month you want to swap if you staying home):
4. Home State:
5. Who your partner was if you participated last time:
6. Blog, if you have one (we will put a link on the group blog):
7. Best email address to contact you:
8. How you heard about the swap:
9. If you are a listed author already on the group blog:
10. Are you willing to ship to Canada or out of the US:

The deadline to sign up is June 10th or when we reach 50 participants, which ever comes first. This time around we will try to match families according to what month they are traveling in, rather than by the age of the children. If you are from outside the US, you must be willing to ship internationally. If you are inside the US, it is not required that you are willing to ship internationally, but please let us know whether or not you are willing to do so. Also, please add our e-mail to your address book so that messages about the swap do not end up in your spam folder. We would love to have anyone willing, do a post about the swap on their blog, but, instead of listing the full instructions please link to where the instructions are posted on the swap blog and always remember to link to the original creator of any swap content.


Be sure to check out the swap blog to get to know some of the other participants and find links to their blogs, as well as get and share ideas. It is also fun to comment on other people’s posts. A good way to respond if you are the post author is to post a comment back in response to the same post.

After you sign-up for the swap, you will receive an invitation to the swap blog, if you are not already a contributor. If you are sitting out this round we will be removing you as a contributor but, that does not mean you can’t participate in future rounds.

Finally, remember to involve your kids in the creating of the packages, because truly they will have just as much fun sending a package as they will receiving one.

Happily,
Meg and Mag
(Michelle & Melissa and together here)

Teasers and Preview

We thought some of you might like a preview of the next swap. So we are going to give you a few hints.
Name: Little People on the road Summer Swap
Timeline: Over the summer
And you don't have to leave your hometown to participate, but you could.
Promise: Each family will have a new friend by the end!
So stay tuned. We are really excited to get underway!
Look for your invite later this week!
That's it for now, Meg and Mag

New Season, New Swap

Mag and I have been gearing up for the next swap. With June quick approaching we are ready to get things going. So stay tuned. Melissa picked the theme this time and it is great. We will post here when the sign up open and send out an email too! Hope the excitement begins to build!! Meg