A journal is a place where you can write all kinds of things: ideas, questions, thoughts, true stories, invented stories, rough drafts for poems, songs, or stories, bits of dialogue that you overhear, and more. It’s different from a personal diary, which is a confined record of your own life experiences.
If you are interested in helping your child become a budding writer, starting a journal early is important for many reasons. Here are four important ones:
The more kids write about what they see and hear, the more observant they’ll become.
The more they write, the more their writing will improve overall.
The act of writing down an idea often stimulates more ideas.
Writing down an idea “moulds” the idea—it can’t be lost if it is written down.
There is no right or wrong way to keep a journal. But here are some suggestions to get started:
Pick a notebook that your child likes: a spiral notebook, a binder, a blank book. It doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, sometimes if it’s too fancy, they might be hesitant to write anything in it.
Guide your child to write whatever arises in them that they find interesting—and as often as they can: it can be a story that they hear that isn’t true, a story that is true, a memory, a dream, a conversation, a description of something they see, an idea for a poem, a story, a song, character names, etc.
Dictate: In the beginning, many children struggle with establishing an event flow. If your child finds it hard initially to pen their thoughts or ideas down, help write it down for them. Make sure to use their words.
Use notes: If they get an idea or have a thought and don’t have their notebook with them, teach them to jot a note to themselves and tape it into their journal later.
Gradually guide them to try to write as concretely and specifically as they can. If they’re writing a description, use details. If they’re writing about something that happened, describe exactly what happened.
Date the entries: This helps you determine their writing progress and also anchor ideas they came up with for later.
Journaling is also a good activity for kids who are reluctant to write or, in some cases, reluctant to speak. The beauty of journaling is that it can be tailored to fit the needs and interests of the person writing it. The first requirement to develop creative writing skills is to write. Like any other habit, writing needs practice. And once your child forms the habit, it will become easier to write. In addition to this, it is crucial to prepare a schedule. Journaling every day is a good practice. But they don’t have to write daily to be successful—just regularly. Prepare a schedule for them based on what is most convenient.
Comments