Family travels have many wonderful benefits to your children. Exploring a new place, meeting other people, and uncovering a new culture expand their horizon and fuel the growth of their social, intellectual and emotional development. Wherever you plan to go – whether it’s just a city tour, an out-of-town weekend getaway, or a week-long trip abroad – travel journals are great tools for recording memories and adding an educational value to your kids’ travel journeys.
6 reasons to encourage your kids to make a travel journal:
1. It’s a great way to keep beautiful memories.
Traveling means having new experiences. When they grow a little older, they would definitely want to go back to those ‘good old days’ when they get to feel the sand dunes under their feet in Namibia or get an up-close encounter with the unique wildlife in Kenya. Same thing when they splurged in some of the best resorts and waterparks in the USA, tasted authentic dim sum and noodles in a restaurant in China or hiked at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. These are all beautiful memories they will cherish for many years to come. When they put all those in a piece of paper, your kids wouldn’t miss a thing as they rekindle their best childhood travel days.
2. Journaling is fun.
In addition to reading books, making crafts, and playing toys, there’s another fun and more educational way to keep your kids from being bored while waiting for the flight, during the long line to enter a museum, or when you won’t be able to leave the hotel just yet. Here are some cool tips to make journaling fun and engaging for your children:
- Add photos, stickers, cut-outs and art clips. These will surely add color and more life to their journals.
- Encourage them to draw and color. Who says journaling is all about words? Maybe your child saw an elephant on your trip to Kenya. Let him draw what he saw. Don’t forget to bring some coloring pencils. It’s going to be a fun coloring activity!
- List down fun facts. So you just visited some of the best Museums in London? Let your kids keep track of the new things they’ve just learned. Whether it’s about science, technology, history – traveling is learning on the go.
3. Journaling is great for their mental health.
It’s not everyday that they feel okay. Even during travel, there are times when your kids aren’t just feeling good. They could be anxious about visiting a strange place,hey could be feeling sad because they’re missing their playmates or furry friends back home. Journaling allows your kids to express what they feel and be honest about their emotions. Journaling has been proven to help adults deal with their emotions and it’s definitely the same thing for kids.
4. It strengthens their communication skills.
Journaling is one great way to enhance your child’s written communication skills even when they’re not in school. Keeping a journal allows kids to record their observations and wonderings while on a trip. At the same time, they get to enhance their vocabulary, spelling, grammar and sentence structure through regular writing habit.
5. It makes them more creative too!
Journaling is a creative pursuit, especially if you incorporate sketching, doodling, making verses and poems, coloring, and a whole lot more. A child’s creativity is at its peak in their early years. Encouraging them to engage in such activities is the best way to nourish their creative side.
6. A personal souvenir that the kid can treasure for a lifetime.
Lastly, journaling provides for richer memories than just selfies or the simple act of observing. When they journal, kids remember a scene longer because they take more time to catalog it into their long-term memory bank. Their journal becomes a personal souvenir. A tangible output they can show to you, to their friends, teachers and relatives, and even pass on to future generations!
And as mentioned earlier, journaling is good for you too. So why not do the same thing on your next family trip? It’s going to be fun, inspiring, and meaningful.
Happy trip!
I get my children to write in their travel journal to help improve their writing. Because they are jotting down topics and things that interest them I get less push back about making them do the activity.
I remember the younger me keeping my journal for years. And when I read back the pages, I was nostalgic and amazed at the wonderful memories I recorded through it.
I really like this idea of travel journal as keepsake. I might encourage my kid to write more travel journal this summer.
I agree with everything you have said in this post! I was never encouraged to write a travel journal but I did anyway and I always look back over them with such fond memories but also it has given me the opportunity to experience so much and has helped me develop my own passion for travelling and blogging about it :)
This is an awesome idea! I wish i started keeping a travel journal long time back!