It is never too early to model for your children how to keep a travel journal. This is something they will cherish years and decades later. At least, that’s how my children reacted upon finding their journalizing from our travels.  It’s even possible to have the youngest of children start this journalizing habit.

My youngest son had finished kindergarten when we took our first family trip to Europe. Because he hadn’t started 1st grade yet, all he knew how to do was “pre-writing”. Pre-writing is a combination of phonetic writing and illustrations. I found his journal entries and they are precious to me now that he’s in high school! Translation: “Thank you for this trip and thank you for letting me sleep in your bed. Thank you very much.”

This may have taken him a long time, too, now that I am remembering this trip. When our nights were winding down, I had the boys write some reflections in their journal. Another good time to do this is at restaurants waiting for your dinner.  Translation: “Thank you for taking me to the beach but not thank you for not letting me catch a fish.” (At least he was polite in his disdain!) I don’t even remember what he is referring to in this entry.

His older brothers were in elementary school at this time so their writing was more advanced and in cursive. I love the innocence of pre-writing or “inventive” spelling as many educators call it. Translation: “We went to the beach and we did some exciting things. Thank ya, thank ya very much” (Elvis impersonation. really.)

When we waited for the ferry boat to Morocco, I had my youngest son draw “portraits” of us at a table in a cafe in Tariffa. We laugh about these now. Translation: “We road (rode) on donkeys to the castle. That’s it.”

He was so excited when he discovered these—it’s like finding a buried treasure!