A Journal for all Ages

By encouraging children to keep a journal they will benefit from writing down their emotions and what they have been doing all summer. They will also improve their writing skills and be ready for that assignment that is given out at the beginning of every school year - an essay on what they did for the summer break.

The journal itself can be a store bought notebook, an actual journal or some loose-leaf paper bound together. The form isnt what is important; it is getting the children in the habit of writing in it every day. This wont be for all children but those that show an interest should be encouraged to develop a routine with it.

If they dont know what to write about, provide them with journal prompts. Some examples can include:

* Describe things that make me: sad, angry, happy, etc
* What would it be like if you were a: kitten, leaf, waterfall, etc.
* Write about a favorite activity or object
* Goals, what you will do in 1 year, 3 years, etc
* A log of what happened during the day and how you felt
* What you want to do tomorrow

For younger children that cannot write on their own, encourage them to draw a picture of something that happened during the day. And then when they are done have them tell you what they want to be written on their journal page. The picture they draw doesnt have to be of what happened; the same journal prompts listed above could be used too.

A variation for this activity is to start a family journal. Have one journal for the entire family and they each have to write one page in it every night. It would be a great idea if the page each person writes is about the same topic, but it doesnt have to be done that way.

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