Journaling with Kids

For the past few years, each of my children has had a journal.  It is a place to keep track of special events, places we went, people we saw, activities we did, thoughts they've had...anything is fair game.  We use a spiral sketchbook and tend to write in the same journal for about a year.  It is a great place to put keepsake items that you don't want to throw away, but don't really know what to do with- valentine cards, ticket stubs, postcards, artwork.  I do most of the writing, but as the kids are getting older, they are taking over more of that job.  Just recently Matias made his first entry completely independently (about his tae kwon do class). It is a fun and easy thing to do together, preserves memories of events that they would otherwise forget, and makes something fun to look back on in years to come.  I am sometimes surprised what they remember from the past, and then I realize they remember it because it is in their books.  I would encourage anyone with little ones to try journaling together.  Just to give you an idea, here are some entries from the kids' journals:

Picture from a surprise party we threw and a class picture

A postcard from Grandma and Papa, and the family picture and cubby tag from preschool

Memories from our camping trip

Violet dictated what we did for the 4th of July and then illustrated it

Entry about drum corps show

Matias' first independent entry: "I am in tae kwon do" with a picture of him and Daddy on the blue and red mats at their studio

Sometimes Matias will write half of it, and then ask me to finish the rest

Here is a graph game that Matias made up for us to play