BERNICE HARRISONon alternatives to movies and the mall
Travel diary
Keeping a diary is one of those New Year’s resolutions that tend to fall by the wayside as soon as the holidays are over and routine kicks in. A traveller’s diary is a different thing altogether, and keeping one is a brilliant way for children to get the most out of their outings and holidays.
There are specialist traveller’s diaries (Eason has a good selection), but for children a hardback A4 ruled copy book is a great place to start. Encourage them to keep a note of all their important trips in the year, from the annual holiday to weekend walks and museum visits. Make headings such as “what we ate”, “best thing we saw” or “how long it took” and stick tickets, receipts and photos on to the pages. Anything can go in, from an envelope filled with sand from the beach to a pressed flower or a sweet wrapper.
Even little ones can keep this sort of diary. We have a precious one done by our then four-year-old that has no written words, just drawings, starting with an aeroplane, then a hotel bedroom and so on, not forgetting a drawing of a plate of spaghetti.
Start this year’s with a travel wish list, and get them to write down the places they’d love to go. It’s a wish list, after all, so encourage flights of fancy.
Scrapbooking is a burgeoning hobby area, and you can buy any amount of stickers, fancy paper or ribbons to jazz up your travel diary. Thescrapbookstore.ie is a good source, as are larger stationery and craft suppliers.