Before we left on our Australia road trip, our friend Linda from Journey Jottings gave Kalyra and Savannah a gift. A set of her postcards, journals and maps to help them record their travel memories.
If you’ve been in any bookstore or visitor centre in Australia, you would have seen them.
We had no idea how prolific they were until we started our Australian road trip and saw them everywhere.
“Oh look. There are Linda’s maps again!” It was a thrill. Her products are very well loved and we met many people on our travels who’ve used them with their children.
While Savannah was too young to write in the notebooks, she still loved unfolding the map and tracing over the lines with her fingers and seeing the pictures.
Kalyra loves writing and the travel notebooks were a great space for her to recount some of our adventures and to even write her own songs. They have hand-drawings of flora and fauna in them to connect as well. The covers are maps of the different states, which I thought was a great idea to use one for each state you visit.
Journey Jottings Australia road trip map
My favourite was the giant fold out map. On it is a map of Australia and next to each state is a box where your child can write some of the highlights of that state.
We loved to look over where we had visited in each state and plot out the route that we’d taken. The A2 sized map folds down to A5 and is kept in a clear plastic folder with room to store your memorabilia.
One afternoon, Kalyra and her friend Scarlet sat down to play schools with the map pointing out the different places they’d visited and talking about the adventures they had on the road.
It was so great to see them connecting like that and the map really fostered that conversation.
If you are travelling around Australia with kids and homeschooling, I recommend this as an invaluable resource.
For some kids, journalling can feel like scratching your eyes out with a pencil. This is an encouraging and motivating alternative.
There are beautiful pictures and designs to inspire them and they don’t have to record lengthy pieces of writing – just jotting their memories down.
They can turn them into stories and sentences later and might be more inspired to do so.
The most important thing is you’re helping them record their memories without the task being too cumbersome.
These fold out maps are not just for kids! It’s a great way for adults to recorded their memories of their road trip around Australia.
There so much to do and it’s easy to forget. With the maps, you don’t need to worry about writing long journal entries, just plot it in with a few sentences to jolt your memories when looking back in years to come.
Linda also has some cool downloads for the kids to help them spot various flora and fauna on her maps.
There are lots of other products in her range: Mail-it-home maps, which are perfect for kids to keep in touch with their grandparents and share their journey with them. She also has magnets and puzzles.
All illustrations are hand drawn by Linda. She is one talented lady AND an exceptionally nice person.
We recently met up again at the Problogger conference on the Gold Coast and our friend Ang met her for the first time and told me how much she loved chatting with her and hearing her stories.
She has so many to share about our beautiful country, which is why she can create such great products, for kids, and adults to record their life-changing experiences around Australia.
You can find out more about the Journey Jottings range here AND follow Linda’s own travel stories here. PLUS on her blog she also shares tips and strategies for recording your memories through drawing!!
Don’t worry if you can’t draw, Linda will teach you the fine art of doodling.
Journey Jottings gets our highly recommended thumbs up for recording your travel memories on your Australia road trip.
Related articles:
- 14 Best road trips in Australia
- 25 national parks in Australia to set foot on
- Handy driving tips for driving in Australia
Do your children like to journal? Have you used Journey Jottings before?
