Do you keep a journal or a diary? For the past couple of years I’ve been keeping a journal. In that time there have been a few months where I haven’t been regularly writing in my journal but have started again. I also have a daily diary system where I keep appointments and to do lists.
This posts is more about recording events, thoughts or feelings in a personal journal/diary. Thus you have a record to look back on. There are many benefits and many ways that you can keep a journal to record events/happenings.
Benefits of Keeping a Journal
Keeping a journal has many benefits. I’ve listed a few below:
Keep a record of what you do
It’s so easy to forgot what happens day to day in your life. Sometimes you might feel that everyday is similar. However, if you keep a journal of what you do than you can look back and be reminded of things you did, people you spent time with, places you visited, etc.
When I was a young adult I kept a journal for a while. When I look back on these journals, it reminds me of people I knew & events that happened back then.
Help process & clarify thoughts & feelings
Keeping a journal can help you process your thoughts and feelings. One reason I started keeping a journal was as part of my period of discernment, to work out what was next for me. Even a few months later when I had an idea, I was looking back and had already recorded that idea in a journal entry. Journaling can also help reduce stress, it can help you process your feelings around stressful events/periods in your life.
Helps You See Growth & Learning
Keeping a journal can help you see what you’ve learnt in the good and the bad times. It can remind you that you’ve survived challenges before and will probably survive and grow from a current challenge. A journal/diary can also show you how far you’ve come.
Spiritual Practice
Keeping a journal was one of the practices we were encouraged to do as part of “The Inner Life of a Disciple of Christ”. This was a subject I did for my Graduate Certificate in Children and Families Ministry. Journaling has been a useful tool for reflecting on life and faith.
Ideas for Helping Kids Keep a Journal
If there are benefits for adults then keeping a journal is also great for kids. Kids would be able to look back on what they did when they were older and be able to see what was important for them.
Remember that a journal is a personal thing. Your children may or may not what to share what they’ve written.
Throughout the ideas below, I’ll share ideas for helping kids as well.
Some Ideas for Keeping a Journal
Handwritten/Digital
Personally, my diary is handwritten. In the last few years, I’ve gone through several notebooks. So far I’ve just been using notebooks that we already have at home or have been gifted. Thus, I haven’t had to buy a specific journal. You could use an old exercise book or a specific journal.
Children can also keep a handwritten journal but may like to add more drawings about what they’ve done. This is also a great way to get children to practice writing. Don’t be overly concerned about spelling and grammar but help them when they ask for it. If a child asks me how to spell a specific word I would often ask them how they spell it and help them sound it out or work out the letter combinations to make the sounds.
There are also plenty of ways that you can keep a digital journal. A blog is one way and this was in many ways the original intent of a blog. Blog stands for Web Log, which has been shorted to blog. A logbook recorded details of a trip made by a ship or aircraft. So a log can be a type of journal record. You could of course just keep a digital journal as a record in a document on your personal laptop/digital device. There are also a number of journal apps that you could use.
Video Journal
You may even keep a video record or video log (Vlog), of your day or week. Again there are apps for this. This might be a good option for children. You could use questions to prompt their thoughts.
Time Log
Even if you just keep a time log of what you do each day, this is a form of keeping a journal. As you look back on your time log, not only will you be able to see how you spend your time but you’ll also have a record of when you did things. This will spark memories.
Laura Vanderkam suggests keeping a time log for a week to get an idea of how you use your time. You can use this record to see where you can tweak or make changes, particularly if your trying to fit in something new/different. In keeping a time log, however she’s been keeping a record of her life.
Sentence a Day
You may be thinking I don’t have time to keep a journal. Even just writing a sentence a day can be enough. You can buy diaries that are specifically for this purpose or just do this in a notebook that you have or online. When my kids were little I use to try and write about one thing they did each day. Janet from Middle Aged Mama writes a sentence a day and blogs about it each month.
A sentence might be enough for a child and at least keeps some sort of record.
Gratitude Journal
Another idea is just keeping a record of things that you’re grateful for. I have done this a bit and looking back I have a small record of what’s happened. You could do this daily or weekly, by yourself or as a family. There are many benefits to recording what you’re grateful for & this is a great thing to teach children. There are many gratitude journals you can buy or just use a notebook or exercise book.
Using Prompt Questions
If you’re not sure what to write or don’t want it to just be a list of what you did for the day, you could use some prompt questions. There are many lists of questions available. You might even like to make up a journal prompt jar with different questions, pick one each time you journal. Or you can buy a specific question a day journal for adults or children.
For a while I was using these 2 questions: “What gave me energy today” and “What did I do that gave other people energy?” which came from an article and a challenge Darren Rowse invited others to join. I found this really helpful for reflecting on what was important and to see how I had helped others.
Prompt questions are also great for children. Perhaps at the end/beginning of each year or around their birthday you might like to use the same questions. In this way you would have a record of how their interests, likes, dislikes, favourites changed or stayed the same over a period of time. This way it’s not something that you don’t need to do each day/week but will still have a record for the future.
Holiday Journal/Travel Diary or For Other Unique Events
If you don’t want to keep a diary all the time, perhaps consider keeping a journal during holidays or other special events. This way you have a record of this special time.
When my kids were 3 and 5 we went to the UK for a holiday. We had family and friends living over there. Both kids kept a record of the holiday. They each had an exercise book and wrote (or we helped them), about what we’d done that day and drew a picture. I also still have my diary from this time, as well as when we went to the UK, just before I turned 12.
Keeping a record of what your life is like at the moment, as much of the world is in shut down, could be great to look back later on as an individual or a family.
Photo a Day Journal
Another way to keep a record, with less writing is to take a photo a day and record about it. You can buy specific photo a day journals, or just make your own or even do this online. Here are some apps for that.
It would be interesting for your children to take a photo a day to see what was important to them. Kids often take photos that we wouldn’t think about. We have several from our time in the UK, that add to the story of our time there.
Bullet Journal
A Bullet Journal is more about organisation and intentional living. However, there are many journal type pages that you could include in a bullet journal.
Bullet Journaling might be a good way to teach children about organisation and help them to keep lists/record about what’s important to them.
Weekly/Monthly Reflection
Rather than recording everyday, you might like to reflect weekly/monthly.
In a weekly reflection you might not write about so many details of each day but record how the week was overall, what were the high, low or unusual happenings and how you felt.
The diary I used last year to record appointments & my to list, had a monthly reflection page. I’m still using the same reflections at the end of each month, this year, as I use more of a bullet journal format. The reflections are: monthly wins, grateful for, focus for the next month.
Emily P. Freeman reflects monthly and uses 3 questions each month. You can receive her email and use the same 3 questions for your own reflection each month.
Children may also enjoy reflecting on weekly/monthly reflection prompts. You may also get an insight into what’s on their mind.
Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking is another form of journaling. The idea behind scrapbooking is to put your photos into books and journal about the events that are pictured. Over the years I’ve done some scrapbooking and currently have a desk set up specifically for scrapbooking. However, all I’ve used it for lately is cardmaking. The main time I seem to scrapbook is when I go to a papercraft afternoon hosted by my creative memories consultant. Currently, I’m still finishing my daughters primary school scrapbook.
After our UK trip, I completed a scrapbook of our holiday. My daughter also did the same. Scrapbooking is a great way to help children record their memories, not just of holidays, but also of everyday events.
Recently my mother-in-law showed my kids the journal they made with their cousins of the time when they visited them in Perth.
How to Make Journaling work for you
While I’ve had times when I’ve kept a journal everyday, there’s been other times when months/years have gone by without recording anything.
The best way is just to pick a method, one I’ve mentioned above, or another way, and just start.
Choose a time of day to journal that works for you. At one stage I was journaling in the evening but so often my husband was watching tv & I’d end up watching with him or didn’t want to turn the light on to write. Since I’ve been journaling about my day in the afternoon it’s become more of a habit. So journal at a time that works for you and let it become part of your daily routine.
This is the same if your helping children to keep a journal. Choose a time that’s going to work for them/you and let it become part of your routine.
Do you keep a journal? If so what form does it take? How do you help your kids record their memories, thoughts & feelings?
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