Benefits of Journal Writing for Kids
Reading and its benefits for kids have been well documented. It seems as parents we are told of the importance and benefits of reading as early as pregnancy itself. We are encouraged to read early and often to our children; in vitro, in infancy, and throughout elementary school. Childhood literacy skills are linked to so many important success factors that reading is known to be exceptionally important, the benefits follow our children throughout their lifetime. And while this is true, writing and journaling also have significant benefits to our children, many of which compliment reading skills. It seems that these benefits may be becoming even more important given our increasingly digitized, screen, and social media driven era. Written communication skills seem to be lacking while at the same time increasing in significance.
Although the benefits of journaling may not be well known, they are wide ranging and have many applications that can benefit children in many areas of their lives, some of those include school work, mental health, and creativity.
School Work - Writing in a journal helps children become better note takers, it can also help in math and science as children can learn to write out math problems and science experiments in their journals. Children also learn to be less critical of their writing allowing ideas to flow more freely.
Mental Health - Journaling helps children to understand and express their feelings, explore self expression as a way to understand themselves better, reduce stress and explore alternative ways to solve problems.
Creativity - Journaling can provide children a safe, quiet place to be present to what is happening in their minds providing an outlet to creative expression of their thoughts and ideas. Time and space is available for accessing their imaginal world while keeping those ideas safe until they are ready for external expression. Journals provide a repository for all kinds of different ideas and can be kept and added to over time.
These benefits can have a profound impact on children’s lives as they learn to find their voice, preferences and build confidence in themselves. Because the benefits of journaling are wide ranging and profound, there are many great products to help children journal. Some product topics include, gratitude, grief, dreaming, science, creativity, and life goals. Hopefully, the easy access of products, and the diversity of topics available combined with the many benefits will inspire us to consider having the children in our lives give journaling a try.
What experiences have the children in your life had with journaling? What journaling topics or products have worked well for you?
Love,
A&Co