Our family LOVES to travel! We have adopted the goal of visiting all “50 States before they graduate” as our own. Besides the hundreds of photographs I take while we travel, we have two main methods of documenting our travels.
The first method: my children’s travel notebooks. They each have a three-ring notebook in their favorite color. Inside it is full of divided page protectors sized to hold postcards. During each major stop we make in our travels, each child picks out a postcard to take home for his or her notebook. On the back, we write the date and his or her favorite parts of the trip. My two oldest children now write this themselves. Also included in each notebook is a two-sided laminated map with a United States map on one side and a world map on the other. These notebooks were inexpensive to create and they are inexpensive to maintain, which works great for our large-ish family!
The second method: this corkboard United States map created by my husband. I saw this idea on Pinterest and modified it just a little. I liked the map framed, in order to keep the board intact. By way of DIY (do it yourself), my husband freehand sketched the map onto the cork using chalk, so he could make changes easily without damaging the fragile cork surface. Then, he traced on top of the chalk with a black Sharpie marker. After giving the marker time to set, he rubbed off the chalk. Voila! I love how it turned out! Now, using t-pins and washi tape, I have flagged the states we have visited. I am excited to watch the map fill in over the years with all of our fun travels.
How about your family? Love to travel too? I would love to hear about your travels and how you document them. Favorite trips? Favorite stops? Places we should visit in your home state? Please share! We would love “insider” advice on all the states we have not yet visited. Our next stop is Texas!
