Yes, we know in our kids mind summer break is all about fun and nothing to do with schoolwork. I agree, a bit.
When I was a classroom teacher many of my students complained when it was writing time, to be honest, I was not okay with this…
I did everything in my power to make sure my students would have a love to write, so what did I do. We had days in the classroom that they would whip out their journals and tell me anything they wanted to share, literally anything. These were my best teaching days ever, “To be able to free write what I want brings out my genuine self”, this is what I taught my students. Just write whatever is on your mind, you don’t even have to share it with anyone but just write whatever comes to mind. It can even be very few words, it’s not about how many words when you are journaling, it’s all about expressing yourself versus holding it in.
Fast forward…
Take your little one and have them pick out a journal, any journal that brings excitement to them. Tell them this is their journal to write down anything they are feeling or just anything they want to talk about at that moment. Let them know as the days, months and years go by they will be able to look back in their journal and notice all the things they were feeling, all the things that happened and even begin to see how they changed as a writer over the years.
When you notice your little one has not written in a few days (maybe 5 days) you can ask them this question, “Can you go in your journal and write one favorite thing you did in the past 5 days?”
I highly recommend to NEVER make journaling a chore neither a punishment. From the adult’s perspective journaling releases our deeper thoughts 💠Most importantly when our students journal over the summer months we continue to foster previously taught writing skills, vocabulary words are not forgotten, and we limit the summer slump (read the summer break blog on my page). To create a love to write we must set the tone and the environment for our little one.
Happy Journaling!
