Journaling

Journaling -- For and With Kids

Do you resolve every year to update your baby books? Once the kids are in high school, you might have more time. So collect those scraps of paper noting first words and accomplishments.

As Kay Adams points out in Journal To The Self, there are hardly any rules in journaling. But one might be: put today's date on everything you add today.

Infancy:

Some new mothers who update formal baby book on a monthly basis and others faithfully write one daily sentence about their children in blank books. But during the months when you're so sleep-deprived you hallucinate, you can still date the gift and birthday cards or scribble a couple words and throw them into a shoe box.

PRESCHOOL:

They can't write yet, but talkative, curious toddlers and preschoolers are still eager to record their thoughts. With your help, or your older children's, get little kids' ideas, dreams (especially if a nightmare wakes them up) and descriptions of their artwork down on paper.

School Age:

From kindergarten on, be available to spell words while kids track their days. A spiral notebook with a favorite character on the cover is a great tool for elementary school kids.

If your kids resist any writing outside school, keep their papers and your own weekly notes.

Teenagers:

Records you've kept of older kids accomplishments -- or just captured days -- make great birthday and graduation presents. A journal can serve as an auxiliary counselor, friend, parent, and writing coach. And a student who's kept a journal is a lot less intimidated by personal essays for college applications. (I wouldn't necessarily mention these things to a teenager.)

But you don't have to forbid diary-keeping to encourage it, either. Give kids strange-looking pens, blank books or journaling programs without comment. Then hope for the best.

This info was taken from a great site on journaling, http://journals.miningco.com/library/weekly.

Check this site out for more links and information.

Tips on Creative Writing By Dr. Virginia Lynch Graf

Write about things that have meaning for you.
Include your feelings and what you write will touch others.
Don't forget to use these four steps for effective writing: pre-write your ideas briefly using phrases, write the story from your first notes, read your story and edit it, re-write it.
Try not to get discouraged with the process.
Remember that work pays off.
You will have a story that you can be proud to share with others.
Get into the habit of writing.
Carry a notebook along on vacation.
Have a notebook handy for riding in the car or on the bus.
Don't just wait for moments of inspiration.
If you develop the habit of writing, you'll discover some really good things are happening.

Writers are readers!

For Younger Children...

If you are still learning to write stories and it seems like a terribly big job to you, dictate them first on the tape recorder and then you won't lose your ideas
Play back the tape recorder a bit at a time as you try to get the story on paper.
You don't have to do the story all at one time.
Dictate your story to an older brother or sister, or to a parent or grandparent.
They will write or type the story as you dictate it
. This will help you to get down the story.
As you get better at writing sentences, you will be able to give the same help to someone younger than you.
Get into the habit of writing down your stories
Don't wait for teachers or parents to tell you to write.
Write them and enjoy them.

Good readers make good writers!