My nine-year-old was the perfect age for most activities. There were a few activities he enjoyed, such as the letter search and some of the drawing exercises, but I do think the recommended ages are appropriate. Journey Jotter Books are recommended for older kids, ages nine and over, but because my six-year-old hates to be left out and insists on doing everything his older brother does, I got one for him, too. I can imagine using these more on a daily basis when my kids are older. A more urban trip that involved a lot of time on trains or in nice restaurants may have given us more time to work on our books. We had a couple long ferry rides as well and we did a lot of our activities during those times. Our recent trip was mostly out in nature, and you can’t write in a book while surfing or hiking Our Journey Jotter books were very popular during the initial flight to Costa Rica (the preparation phase!), and during occasional evenings when the kids were tired and it was dark outside and they were looking for distraction. (Hint: as part of the evaluation, they get to review their own behavior at the restaurant, which is the best part of all!) My favorite part of it is probably the “Restaurant Review,” a brilliant couple of pages that gives your child something to do during the interminable wait at a restaurant. The Essentials chapter, which comes with every book, is also well-designed with different types of activities to provide a range of options for your child: drawing, writing, making predictions, even a game. I chose the Designer and Seeker chapters for the six-year-old. My nine-year-old chose to add the Naturalist, Engineer, and Seeker chapters to his book. Spotting letters on signs is a fun Journey Jotter Book activity that works anywhere, including rural Costa Rica. Depending on where you are and what your child feels like doing - they can draw pictures, code, study the world around them, take photos or write a paragraph. I appreciated the customizable chapters, not just because you can adjust them for the age and interests of your child, but because the book includes so many different types of activities. As they complete them, they are recording their journey. The activities help your child explore the world around them as they travel. Journey Jotter Books aren’t really travel journals they are customizable activity books designed by a teacher. Therefore, I was thrilled to find Journey Jotter Books, and even more thrilled when Jessie at Journey Jotter Books agreed to send me one for each of my older boys to use on our recent trip to Costa Rica. Organization is not my strong suit, so I got stuck at step one, bewildered by the possibilities on Pinterest. There are a lot of printable travel journals on the internet, but you have be organized enough to find the right one for your child, have printer ink on hand, print them out, and bind them. Which brings me to the subject of travel journals. If you’re thinking this kid is spoiled to be doing educational work in this idyllic setting, you’re right. Instead, their teachers usually encourage them to work on writing while they’re away. Our kids are still young enough that they don’t have specific make-up work to do while they are gone. As they get older this will get harder, and I appreciate the burden it is on their teachers, but we do it anyway. It’s one of the ways we can afford to go places. I say this knowing it will probably infuriate lots of teachers, many of whom are my dear friends, but yes, we pull them from school to take advantage of cheaper flights and lower-priced hotel rooms. However, the one thing they always get excited about is missing school to travel. Or they might be furious that they are missing Valentine’s Day at school, as mine were this year. They might be thrilled to go to Costa Rica. You’d expect them to be grateful, right? (“Do you know what a vacation was when I was a kid? Shining my father’s shoes! While climbing a mountain barefoot! In a foot of snow! Uphill! Both ways!”) If you have contrary kids, however, you might find that they are unhappy with just about anything that isn’t their idea, at least initially. Journey Jotter Books turned out to be an educational, fun way to create a personalized travel souvenir, and I’m so glad my boys got the chance to use them on our recent trip to Costa Rica. My kid spent an hour perusing all the options available on the Journey Jotter Books website and then waited breathlessly for it to arrive in the mail, which is how I knew I had found a winner. When your nine-year-old gets nerdily excited about a travel journal, you know you’re doing something right.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |