My twin boys and I are reading a biographical novel about Leonardo da Vinci from the “Giants of Science” series. There are two whole chapters dedicated to his famous notebooks and we giggled with delight realising that, like Leonardo da Vinci, we’ve been keeping notebooks and scrap journaling to document our questions, experiments, observations and realisations for over a year now.
Scrapjournaling is recommended for children who can read and write independently and is perfect for worldschoolers and unschoolers, but can also become a regular practice for a child in public school.
Materials Needed:
Blank paged journal
Bin of magazines, newspapers, maps, old field guides, etc.
Writing supplies (gel pens, pencils, markers, coloured pencils, erasers, etc)
Glue sticks and scissors
Have your child create a title page based on the grade they’re in, current year or season, book series, country they’re visiting, road trip or subject area they’re interested in and focusing on using this journal. It can be all encompassing or narrowed down- there are no rules!
Keep a ziplock bag, or folder, in a backpack your child travels with to and from school, on the road, or overseas and collect everything from tickets, maps, receipts, stickers, scavenger hunts at museums, bar codes from toys and souvenirs, local currency, paper menus, and so on in their folder to add to their scrap journal. Think “scrapbook for education".”
A science page may have a ticket from a science museum glued to the page and the barcode from the toy magnifying glass they purchased with their own money and in their handwriting (cursive if your child is 8 years old or older) notes about the discoveries and experience:
Today, August 18, 2025 I visited the science centre is Osaka, Japan. I loved the exhibit featuring the mirrors and really enjoyed playing with shadow and light. When I came home, I read about Isaac Newton’s theories on light and how Leonardo da Vinci liked to dissect people’s eyeballs…gross! He did some pretty rad sketches on the anatomy of the eye though!
Perhaps you have a child that is fascinated by dinosaurs, archaeology and prehistoric animals and you’ve taken a trip to the National History Museum. Grab a map from the museum and let them cut out pictures, exhibit descriptions, and details about various new artefacts that have been added.
July 6, 2025 I went to the dinosaur museum in Canberra, Australia today. I didn’t even realise there were different species of dinosaurs discovered around the world. I bought a book on Ankylosaurus in Singapore and found similar species in Canberra, but scientists use different names because these guys have different features. They’re all ankys though. Geeze, the animatronics were sick! I wonder whose job it is to make those. Will they be holograms or AI designed in the future?
Buy a postcard at an art museum of a piece that was observed and note the artist, time period and perhaps the medium used or genre.
Today we saw the real “Great Wave” by Hokusai at an at museum in Dotonburi. We were just walking along and randomly saw a sign that said they had it so we went in. I was like, “What the what? Are you kidding me? There it is!” Seriously, the actual real one! I watched a video about how the painting was made. It was much smaller than I thought it was going to be, but my mom said that was how she felt when she saw the Mona Lisa in Paris.
I’ll be honest with you all, we visited eight plus countries this year and scrap journaling as we traveled did not go very well because the boys were always very tired, but we created main lesson books to document our learning prior to the trips, did our research, collected items and scraps along the way and are currently adding to our notebooks. Let this be fun and do not stress over it. Some kids will even go back and add things they remember weeks or even months after an experience. Have faith in the rest and reset cycle of learning that children go through and be careful not to turn scrap journaling into “work”. Keep it playful and do it WITH your child(ren) at first to model excitement over the art.
We’re taking another trip to the mainland this month and then to Thailand. I’m hoping for more success on these trips as we’ve gotten a bit better at keeping our journals on the forefront of our minds and made this a daily practice. I’m learning age nine and older is better at doing this independently than younger children.
Also, add notes in the columns about documentaries, books, TV series, historical figures, theorists, and so on that may deepen their understanding of a subject. These notebooks will serve as a reference point for learning and may be revisited throughout their academic career. Have fun! Get scrappy!
Chelsea