Journaling has long been appreciated for its ability to help people navigate difficult emotions and express themselves in a healthy, creative way.
But did you know that even children can benefit greatly from the habit of journaling?
Far from being just a writing activity, journaling encourages children to process their feelings and express themselves in a healthy manner. Journaling helps children develop a deeper understanding of their own thoughts and emotions.
Furthermore, journaling serves as a safe outlet for venting frustrations and celebrating achievements, which is especially important in their formative years when they are still learning how to navigate social and emotional challenges.
By regularly putting their thoughts and experiences into words, children can enhance their communication skills. This aids in their academic growth and improves their ability to convey ideas succinctly and effectively in everyday interactions.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of journaling for children, suggest creative ideas to encourage journaling as a habit, and provide simple strategies to help educators make journaling a part of literacy in the classroom.
Here are some of the benefits of journaling for children:
1. Improves Writing and Communication SkillsIntroducing your child to journaling can significantly boost their vocabulary and writing abilities. By writing regularly, children explore their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, picking up new words and ways to express themselves.
Journaling also encourages children to become better communicators. Writing about their emotions, opinions, or events in their daily life trains them to organise their thoughts more clearly. This skill can carry over to their verbal communication abilities, improving how they connect with others in daily interactions.
For instance, a child might compose a letter to a favourite fictional character as a journal exercise. Writing down their thoughts on that character's actions or feelings helps the child understand different perspectives and develop empathy for others, a vital skill for effective communication and fostering strong relationships in real life.
One of the primary benefits of journaling at any age is the opportunity for emotional self-expression. For many children, putting their feelings into words can be challenging, especially if they lack the vocabulary to do so. They also need appropriate outlets to express negative emotions like anxiety, anger, disappointment, or sadness.
Through journaling, children can reflect on their feelings and better understand their own emotional landscape. For instance, are they feeling anxious because of an upcoming test at school? Are they upset about an argument with friends? Did a parent say something to make them sad?
Writing allows children to identify these feelings, pinpoint what caused them, and understand their reactions to a particular situation. This awareness will help them better regulate their emotions over time.
Journaling can strengthen your child’s critical thinking and comprehension skills. The practice requires them to work on processing information logically, recognising patterns in their thoughts, and developing a structured way of sharing their ideas.
Writing down their thoughts will draw on a child’s abilities to focus, recall important details, describe and explain things they saw or did, and express the reasoning behind their opinions and actions.
A child writing about a school trip might recall the places they visited, things they saw, how they felt, and what they learned. This process helps them organise information in sequence and construct a coherent narrative of their experiences.
Journaling naturally improves storytelling skills by encouraging children to develop a narrative around the topic they choose to write about. Whether they recount daily events or create a fictional story, journaling helps them expand their imagination and creativity.
Moreover, journaling doesn’t have to be limited to writing—encourage your child to express themselves through other visual forms as well.
They can draw their ideas, create collages or scrapbooks, make lists, or experiment with calligraphy and designs. These creative outlets make journaling more engaging and help children express their thoughts in a rich variety of ways.
What should your child write about in their journal? This is where prompts come in handy. A prompt is a short question or thought exercise that is designed to inspire and guide journal entries.
For very young children, prompts should be simple and include drawing and colouring activities to keep them engaged. As they grow older, children can be given prompts relating to their own opinions, feelings, and observations about the world around them.
Here are some ideas for age-appropriate prompts to get your child started on their journaling adventure:
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Age Group |
Journaling Prompt Suggestions |
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Pre-school (Ages 4 to 6) |
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Primary School (Ages 7 to 9) |
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Primary School (Ages 10 to 12) |
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Older Children (Ages 13 to 15) |
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Sourced from: Gratitude - The Life Blog, Waterford, and StoryWritingAcademy
Children can also explore themed journals that reflect their interests. This approach can make journaling feel more meaningful and relevant to a child. Examples of themed journals include:
Gratitude Journals: Encourage your child to take a few moments each day to write down things they are grateful for. These could include a person, a pet, a special moment, or even a favourite meal. This practice helps children develop a positive mindset and appreciate the little joys in life.
Adventure Diaries: This theme is great for children who love exploration. Ask them to document exciting experiences, real or imagined. They can write about a trip to the park, a family vacation, or create fictional adventures in space or different historical eras.
Reading Journal: A reading journal can help children engage with books more deeply and develop critical thinking skills. They can discuss key plot points, describe characters, talk about story elements they liked or disliked, predict what might happen next, and even write their own endings to the story.
Additionally, you can encourage your child to explore visual journaling. This method allows children to express their thoughts and emotions creatively by integrating artwork with written entries. Some techniques include:
Many children may see journaling as a chore similar to homework. However, by making it fun and engaging, journaling can become an enjoyable and rewarding habit.
Dedicate a specific time each day for journaling, such as before bedtime or after school. However, it's important to be flexible. Avoid forcing your child if they simply don’t feel like journaling on a given day. Keep in mind that journaling should feel like a fun and natural activity for your children.
The goal here is to make it an activity that children actually enjoy doing. This allows them to have a positive association with journaling which in turn helps to foster a love for creative writing.
Let children choose their journal themes, notebooks, and stationery. Having creative control allows children to express themselves in a way that feels unique and natural to their personalities.
Compared to structured activities like homework, which come with expectations and requirements, journaling offers children the freedom to create something that is entirely their own. This sense of ownership fosters a stronger connection to journaling, making children more likely to engage with it regularly.
Colourful pens, stickers, stamps, decorative notebooks, and patterned washi tape can all make journaling more exciting and visually appealing. You’ll also find a wide array of journals and notebooks designed especially for children, with striking artwork and thoughtful, structured prompts for different sections.
As mentioned previously, journaling doesn’t need to be a purely writing-based activity. Children can draw, paint, or even paste keepsakes like ticket stubs, dried leaves, or photos. More art-based journals can be particularly beneficial for very young children, or children who don’t yet feel fully confident in their writing skills.
Additionally, digital journals may be a good option for children who prefer working on apps or online diaries. Apps like Jour are suitable for children aged 13 and older, while younger children might enjoy Me: A Kid’s Diary, with its simple interface and eye-catching illustrations.
Give children creative prompts and fun challenges to inspire their writing, and let them choose their preferred topics. Activities like a 30-day journal bingo provide children with interesting ideas to write about, while adding an element of fun and motivation as they work to complete the challenge within the set time frame.
A child’s journal is a deeply personal part of their lives. Respecting their privacy is vital in fostering trust and making journaling a safe and non-judgmental space for self-expression.
Assure the child that their journal is for their eyes only, unless they choose to share it. If a child feels that someone might read their journal without permission, they may withhold their true thoughts and emotions, thus defeating the purpose of the activity.
As with encouraging children to read, getting involved as parents and educators is one of the best ways to help them embrace journaling. When children see adults keeping journals, they are more likely to commit to the habit themselves.
Set aside time for family or classroom journaling, where everyone sits down to work on their personal writing projects. You can also journal in front of your child and talk to them about how the practice helps you in your everyday life.
If the child is comfortable with it, you may even discuss and read their journal entries together.
Journaling is a deeply enriching activity that can benefit children both mentally and emotionally.
By improving their writing skills, fostering their emotional intelligence, and honing their creative abilities, journaling can deeply enrich a child’s literacy development both at home and in the classroom.
I Can Read’s comprehensive reading programme incorporates fun writing and journaling activities in our efforts to create independent and confident young readers in Singapore.
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