Get in the Journal Habit!

Back to School is an important time to set habits that last throughout the school year. Journal writing is essentially a question of just developing a habit. Once the routine is established, keeping to it is easy, and its rewards are so valuable that it can become like distance running—those who do it can’t do without it. If you can get your youngster started, he’ll thank you for the rest of his life.

The trick (and huge reward, of course) is to fill the diary, to have it to look back on—and, as kids soon discover, to be able to draw upon its content for school assignments all year long.

Around ages seven, eight, nine, children usually love the idea of keeping a diary. And, changes to everyday life – like the start of a new school year – present lots of new things and ideas to write about!  So, let’s talk about how to help your child get started.

Materials:

• Blank book (preferably one with lines) or word processing program
• Pocket-sized notepad

Getting Ready
Observe for a week or so how your child uses his time. When might be a convenient time for him to do his journal writing? If he can use your computer, consider whether he might prefer to keep his journal electronically instead of in a book. If your child will write in his own book, browse in a book or stationery store to select a blank book or diary that will be visually appealing to him. Whether he writes on the computer or in his own personal book, get him a pocket-sized notebook to use for quick jotting when he’s away from the computer or his writing time, so that he can refer to it later when he writes his journal entry.

Think about whatever exposure to diaries and personal journals you may have had.

• Have you ever kept a journal?
• Have you read any journals or excerpts from journals?
• Would anyone care if Julius Caesar had not kept a journal? Or Richard Nixon? Or Anne Frank?
• What are some of the reasons people write in journals?

Consider keeping a journal yourself and buy yourself a blank book you like—or plan to do it on your computer.

• Introduce the idea of keeping a journal to your child. Talk with him about what a journal is, why people write in them, and what kinds of things a person can write about in a journal. Encourage him to realize that not only can anyone be a journal writer, but that his own private journal is a place where he can write about anything and everything he wants to!
• Take the next ten minutes or so for him to write an entry. (If you write in your journal at the same time, you will help him by example and companionship.) If he’s stuck for an idea, suggest that he write about his thoughts and feelings about keeping a journal or about what you have been talking about, or simple about “what happened today.” Tell him that he should never worry about what he is writing, but should just write and keep writing for ten minutes.

• After ten minutes, interrupt the writing to talk a little about it. How does it feel? Has writing given him any new ideas? Would he like to draw an illustration in his journal?

  Brainstorm together a long list of all the possible things he could write about at some time in his journal. As you brainstorm, have him write the list on the inside back or front cover of his journal.

  Brainstorm also all the different kinds of entries he could make—lists (10 best…, top 10 reasons for…), jokes, poems, narrative accounts of true events, stories he makes up, letters to himself or others, drawings, copying in something he’s read or heard that he likes or objects to, pros and cons of doing something or making some choice, etc.

• Point out that what makes journal keeping work best is picking a regular time to do it and sticking to it. Decide together how often he wants to write and what time he’ll schedule for it. Plan a brief time—ten minutes every day won’t seem like much to a kid. He may stretch his ten minutes when he really gets into something he wants to write about. And when he is not inspired, giving his journal just its allotted ten minutes won’t kill him (or you).

• Support his every effort with all your heart—even when you don’t like what he is writing. Encourage any indication you observe that he has written something he’d like to read to you or show you. But never pry. Stress that the journal is his own private writing place, which he need not show to others. Praise him for sticking with the journal when you are talking to friends and family. In short, keep him aware that you value what he is doing.

  And if you can, try journal writing yourself. Then share some of what you write with him. Schedule some of your writing to coincide with his so that you can both be sitting there scribbling together—fellow diarists!

Activity from Kaplan’s Making the Grade: Grades 3-4, Creating a Successful Learning Environment at Home.