Travel journals are such a fun and educational way to encourage children to contemplate what they have experienced whilst traveling. They're also great for their language skills and artistic development. When working in their journals, kids are stimulated to express themselves in a creative way. They practise their creative writing, drawing skills, they can also try techniques like stamping, making collages, etc.

Tips for keeping a children's travel journal

When I was in Paris last weekend, I bought travel journals for each of our kids in the local art store. They are just plain notebooks, as I prefer my children to create their own content as opposed to the 'pre filled' travel journals. At home, we assembled a pencil case with good quality coloured pencils, a few waterproof black pens, masking tape, a small pair of scissors, glue and a small box of watercolours. This way they can write, draw and paint. They can also stick or glue memorabilia and make collages.

Memorabilia to collect

Things that are fun to collect are entrance tickets of museums, sugar bags, clipped mementos, postcards, stamps, pressed flowers, feathers, etc. It's a good idea to also dedicate a little pouch for these collections, until you're sitting down somewhere and there is some time to update the journal.

Inspirational questions

In the back of the book, we wrote down a list with inspirational questions, helping them to contemplate and write about their day. (They don't need to answer these questions, but the idea is that these questions help them come up with ideas for their travel journal content.)

Here's the list we wrote down:

• The date today. The location of today.

• People I was with, or new friends I met today.

• Where did we stay today?

• What did we do today? Where did we go?

• My favourite and least favourite part of the day.

• What did we eat today? Did I taste or smell anything special?

• What was the weather like today?

• Special plants, people, animals or architecture I saw today.

• Something I learned today.

• Something I laughed about today, something that made me sad today.

• Special souvenirs that we found or bought today.

• A nice book I'm reading, or cool music I've listened to.

Once we set off for France next week, I will copy a map of the area we're traveling in, so they can have a sense of where we are, and where we are heading to. They can mark the roads we are driving and mark our destinations. This will also help them to get an understanding of the length of the journey.

A portable printer

Also, and this is of course a totally redundant gadget but I thought it would be fun to give it a try -- I invested in a tiny portable printer. Since I never really print photos anymore, I thought it would be so fun to use a photo as a story starter in their journal every now and then. I think I will let them print a special photo every few days. Perhaps of a beautiful building, special tiles, beach treasures, of fun friends... Whatever they think is most special.

I have shown my children some examples of travel journals on the internet, showing them how mixing different techniques can give great results. They're super inspired and are already sitting down a few times every day to work in their books. As am I! In fact, I have just bought a travel journal for myself too :).

xxx Esther