3 Ways a Travel Journal Will Spark Your Child’s Creativity

Many people claim that in a world where children have all they want, they are becoming less creative than parents would like them to be. They feel like children would rather spend all their free time playing video games and binge-watching music videos on YouTube than sit and do something creative.

But that’s not TRUE.

Children are still as creative as ever. What’s difficult is finding the right activity that would tickle their fancy, ignite their creative spark and launch them into the haloed realm of creativity.

Travel journals can do the creative-sparking trick. They are great ways to hit that creative spark in a child and unleash their innovative fire bolts on every side.

But first, we need to agree on one thing: creativity isn’t linear. It isn’t black and white. Creativity has many faces and takes on different shapes, colours, and sizes.

Sir Ken Robinson wrote in his book, The Element, about asking a room full of people how creative they were. He was surprised that 80% of the crowd didn’t raise their hands. “They don’t know what creativity is,” he concluded.  When he explained to them that creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value, more hands went up.

So, drawing from this definition, creativity would vary from one child to another. While for one, creativity is about beautiful colour cutouts, for another, it’s a beautiful story weaved from an experience.

For some, it’s a song formed, or talk about the place, or a surprising scientific discovery (that may never be in the end, but it’s original nonetheless).

Whichever way your child expresses his/her creativity, a travel journal can help him/her ignite that creativity and get him/her swimming in the creativity sea.

3 ways a travel journal will spark your child’s creativity

  1. A travel journal allows your children to be free. 

When children visit new places, they are more aware of the things around them. Their eyes, ears, and minds are alert to new ideas and the new stories they’ll tell their friends and classmates when they get back home.

With a travel journal, your children are free to conjure beautiful images, either in words or in pictures. They aren’t wondering if what they are writing or drawing or painting or using paper cutouts to illustrate is right or wrong.

At that point of journaling, they are at their authentic selves and are at their creative best. They are the children they are and nothing else.

While drawing and writing in school can be strict and filled with writing and drawing rules, a child’s travel journal is his private property. His memoir is the one place where nobody would judge him for his bad grammar or sloppy painting or drawing.

Also, the creative ability of children is driven when they have their own safe space, which is what a travel journal offers. That mental space that they are entitled to, a place where mummy and daddy won’t come in to correct a mistake, motivates children to do great things.

In that mental space, children are free to stretch the limits of their minds, fail, and not be judged or compared to other children. They can create the world as they see it, and as they want it. Creativity is at its peak at this point.

  1. Travel journals help kids chase their passion 

Humans are at their best when they are working on things they love. Children are at their creative best when they are working on projects they love.

A travel journal for your boy is a beautiful way for him to realize he loves museums and antiquities. Writing about the animals at the zoo, drawing the hoof of the elephant, and recalling the fascinating facts about kangaroos might help your girl discover she loves animals.

As children walk back in time to recreate what they saw during a trip, their creative mind takes a new spin. And their interests in new things start to form. In truth, you never know how these new things they’ve seen and these places they’ve experienced have influenced them.

Recreating them on paper through writing, drawing, or painting or even speaking about it on a voice recorder could help them find their life work. And when they do, they would stay creatively alert, always looking for new ways to explore their passion.

Furthermore, with a travel journal, your child can search within the depths of their memories and connect three to four different events. He or she can draw intelligent conclusions on why certain things happen and the similarities between occasions and places and people.

  1. A travel journal helps your children’s mental health

With a travel journal, your children are free to express their emotions unhindered. Travel journals provide them with a safe emotional space.

And creativity is best when emotions are involved. Your kids may feel sad about something that happened during the trip. They might be unable to tell you what they felt, and decide to draw it out, write or paint it.

They can create amazing works of art, poetry, and literature. They can draw from the painful or happy emotions, see patterns that they never knew existed. Many journal books for kids allow children to play with lots of colours.

Don’t be afraid to let your child have a travel journal. And don’t be alarmed when you see not-so-great grammar or paintings; they are original.

A travel journal in your child’s hands can take his/her mind to places where you never thought they could journey to. Think your kids are not as creative as you were at their age? Not at all.

They probably need a good travel journal. A creative genius has just been born.

So why not allow them to explore their creativity? One way to start might be to go outdoors or on holiday to another country. Check out this article that describes the many things you can do with your kids and it’s a perfect way to begin their travel journal.

Travel Journal for Children

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