Kids Travel Journals

We try to make our vacations a fun learning environment for our kids.  From visits to historical sites, to trying new foods and activities, we hope our kids return from each trip with worldly knowledge of a new area and culture.  A few years ago our kids became interested in learning about the various species of tropical fish they were seeing while snorkeling.  We purchased a tropical fish guide, notebook, and colored pencils so they could make a science journal of the fish and sea life they observed.  During that trip the science journal quickly became our kids travel journals as they drew and wrote about everything and anything that happened during the day.

Our youngest was in Pre-K, so he drew pictures of his day and we wrote exactly what he said about the day’s activities for him.   We’ve taken these journals on a few trips now and it is fun to see the progression of not only their perception of our daily activities, but also what they perceive as the best parts of their day.  It is also fun to see their observations of the area, and improvement in their writing and drawing from trip to trip.

 

Our kids get great joy in sharing their travel journals with friends and family when we return from a vacation.

5 Reasons Why Kids Should Keep a Travel Journal:

1. As they reflect on their daily activities it helps them to retain what they have learned about a new area. Journaling helps reinforce what our kids have learned each day.
2. It is an incentive to seek out new experiences throughout the day to write about in their journal.  Our kids have started asking to do specific activities so they can include the experiences in their journals.
3. They will be able to look back and remember what they were thinking and feeling on any given day of a family vacation. Keeping a daily journal helps our kids remember and relive their favorite experiences over and over again. 
4. It helps to improve their writing and sentence development. We can see positive improvements in their writing and drawing from trip to trip. 
5. The ability to share their experience and knowledge with friends and family in their own words. As our kids fill the pages of their journals, I plan on scanning and making a forever book they can share with their own kids one day.

 

Our kids get to decide what they write about each day.  They can choose their favorite activity or include everything we have done for the day.  We have a few loose “rules” they must follow:

1. Each entry must include a date.
2. Each entry must include a picture.

 

That’s it.  Those are our rules.  We want our kids to enjoy their journaling experience, and not feel like we are forcing them to write or draw something.  Because our vacation days are generally busy from dawn until bedtime, we schedule journaling right after breakfast.  We find that is the best time to discuss and journal the previous day’s events.

Each time we pack for a new adventure I LOVE to scan through their journals remembering our family experiences, through their eyes, and wondering what might lie ahead for those empty pages.

 

Check out these journal options from our Affiliate Amazon.  You can choose a journal with writing prompts to guide your child to write and draw about their experiences; or use a blank journal to let your kids choose what they write and draw each day.  There is no wrong way to journal!

 

 

Kids’ Travel Journal (Interactive Diary, Notebook)

“My Thoughts” Journal (Blank Lined 6×9 Journals) (Volume 39)