A journey stick is a real fun way of being able to recount a journey or adventure. It is not only great fun, but its a start to story telling. For younger ones, telling the story of a journey. For older ones, using the objects they find to describe their adventure with a richness they might otherwise find hard.
You will need: a stick, a few elastic bands or string (note if your child is younger it might be helpful to have different colours). You may want some paper for afterwards.
Step 1. Select your stick. My children really enjoy finding the 'perfect' stick for their adventure. It really doesn't matter what type of stick as long as its not too flimsy. My children really enjoy using an old potato peeler to whittle the end of their stick and then write their name on it but this is not necessary, just fun).
Step 2. Pop the elastic bands or string around it, so they are tight-ish (you're going to tuck objects you've found underneath).
Note: I usually take a few extra elastic bands so if we find more than we expected we can add them on.
Step 3: Head out on your walk. As you are walking, collect the most interesting things you find and attach them to your stick. You put them in chronological order (so start at one end and fill it along the stick). Anything of interest - one of my children loves collecting flowers. The other often finds all sorts of bits and pieces - interesting leaves, a bottle top, a flower, another stick, a feather etc.
The stick serves as a memory prompt, so being able to play, climb and find new places along the way is important.
You might want a pause once you're home, but at some point you can use the stick to re-tell the story. What did you do, what adventures did you have? If you have an older child, they might want to write up their experiences and create a magical 'wild' story. Smaller children might like to create a play or just tell the story in their own way.
There are lots of different ways you can play with this at the end. For my children, it often becomes mother natures wand...after being a spade, a space stick, a magic animal wand etc but they all find different ways to play with it.
Enjoy!
