Journey - by Dea Birkett

Sometimes you stumble across something that makes you gasp, 'Why hasn’t that been done before!' But not often. This has been one of those rare, lucky weeks. The gasp is called Journey Journal, and it addresses one of those sticky issues this website has discussed: Is it right to take the kids off school to go on holiday?

I believe the simple answer is ‘No’. But then, nothing’s simple. There are all sorts of reasons – including cost – why we might want to transform term time into travel time. But the real argument for flouting end of term dates is that your kids are likely to learn more on the road than they are at their desks. Travel is always a good lesson – perhaps not in something on the National Curriculum, but definitely in life.

That’s where the Journey Journal steps in. Produced by small independent publisher Can of Worms, it transforms a term-time trip into a teaching session. Can of Worms publisher Toby Steed, with two young children himself, noticed that if a child is off school long term sick, for example, they’re expected to do some studying at home. But if they’re away from the classroom on holiday, nothing is expected on their return.

The Journey Journal, designed by geography teachers, is for parents and schools to hand out to these holidaying shirkers. Tasks it sets include ‘Drawing a typical (not traditional) local female’, ‘Complete this graph to record the weather (ie rainfall and temperature) during your journey’, and ‘Draw something that is okay in this place but rude in your place.’ Toby suggests filling in the Journal could be a condition of a school letting a pupil have time off to travel. I imagine some kids, when asked to draw a graph, might prefer to stay at home. But the Journal’s fun. It’s also very small, so can fit into anyone’s pocket. I’ll put it in mine when we next bunk off.

Journey Journals available from www.geographycollective.co.uk and CanofWormsEnterprises.

Related Takethefamily articles include:

Florence with Young Kids
Horrible Histories in Mexico
On Holiday with the National Curriculum
A Mother’s & Teacher’s View
Learning Holidays

Related Takethefamily blogposts include:

Returning Again and Again
Speaking in family friendly tongues
Putting the Fun Back into Holidays