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Journaling
The following is a series of articles that can help parents and teachers with students who are struggling in writing.
Journaling can be a lot of fun or it can be a nightmare. I have journaled for most of my life and found it particularly valuable in my own emotional healing journey. I have also incorporated it into each subject in my children’s home education.
Below are a few ideas.
Science: Nature walks can be anything from walking around your yard, neighborhood, a park or even a science museum. This is a great way to do a project on types of insects, plants, trees, the weather, animals, and endangered species. By collecting leaves or insects, research can be done either at the library or on the computer and putting together a small paragraph on each collected item enhances the student’s ability to recognize, gather, and organize information. Recently during our last move, I went through my children’s keepsakes and found various journals they completed. One was a leaf journal in which all the leaves had been perfectly preserved.
Personal: A personal journal can a daily, weekly, or bi-weekly event. (If your child is already doing this on their own, then it should not be incorporated into their schoolwork.) Encourage your student to write down their thoughts and feelings about everyday events. Allow them to share, if they want to, but sharing shouldn’t be forced. This should be a place where they can be safe and honest. If your child is having trouble starting a personal journal, you may help out by giving them a one sentence entry. Start with something that happened out of the ordinary for that week and let them finish with 2-3 sentences. Allow them to draw a picture or paste pictures in their journal to help make it personal. Lists can be another fun way for their entries: Things I would like to do this summer; What I would like for Christmas; Ways I can help others; Things that get on my nerves; Things I need to change about my attitude.
Bible or Prayer: These can be used either once early in the morning or once a week. Have every child write their daily or weekly memory verse and suggest writing a story that goes along with the verse. Pictures can be helpful to include. Ask them how they believe the verse may be useful in the future and what it means to them. A prayer journal can be used in the same way. Make sure to note if and when prayers are answered.
Spelling: A weekly list of spelling words should be kept in this journal. On day one, the student should take half of the words and create a story. The next day ask them to take the rest of the words and finish the story. Create a page for antonyms and synonyms. Word games such as hangman can also be created using the spelling words. Have them make up their own spelling games, pig-latin, backwards spelling, symbols for the alphabet.
Art or Writing: These are helpful to students interested in art and writing. Artist can keep lists of images that struck them, possibly making notes of specific colors, settings, emotions. Writing journals can be divided into sections. For fiction, sections could include: characters, settings, timelines, plot ideas, quotes, names, sentences or dialog that sparks imagination. For non-fiction: sections would follow under a certain theme. For example: Moving which would include sub-themes; packing, unpacking, how to keep in touch with friends, making new friends. All of this could someday become a book or artwork.
Art or Writing: These are helpful to students interested in art and writing. Artist can keep lists of images that struck them, possibly making notes of specific colors, settings, emotions. Writing journals can be divided into sections. For fiction, sections could include: characters, settings, timelines, plot ideas, quotes, names, sentences or dialog that sparks imagination. For non-fiction: sections would follow under a certain theme. For example: Moving which would include sub-themes; packing, unpacking, how to keep in touch with friends, making new friends. All of this could someday become a book or artwork.
Creative writing ideas can be found. It takes a little time and research. The library or a google search is the best place to start. All three of my children, now grown, have in some way or form continued to use the creative writing skills I taught them, starting with the simple ways listed above. Maybe you have some ideas that have worked well for your students. I would love to hear about them.
There are several other websites, magazines, and contests that are open for submissions for young writers. One place to start is: DevoKids.com http://devokids.com/ and iBeGat http://www.ibegat.com/about.
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