Got My DD5 A Journal For Her Birthday...Ideas on Using it?

[featherstory]

Hey...I got my daughter a personalized journal, with a picture of her and myself when she was a baby on the inside, and a passage I wrote.  I think it would be a great idea to get one for her every year.

Anyway, I got it from minted.com and it is graph paper on the inside.  I thought it would be cool to be able to let her draw in it, as well as post pictures/found objects, make mini-collages, and write.

I want her to be able to look back at it years from now and understand and remember what life was like for her...

We have yet to use it though...her birthday was almost a month ago.  Actually we did some writing in it last night just cause we didn't have any other paper while we were visiting family.  We wrote in the back of the book and I told her we would make decorations later.  I want to teach her symbols, codes, paisleys, etc.

Today I asked her to get her journal so we could write down the lyrics to a song she made up since she wanted me to sing it and I didn't know the lyrics.  Then I asked her if she wanted me to help her draw and star and I thought that'd be a good thing to put in the journal, but both times she decided not to do it, even though she thought it was a good idea, she said she'd "do it later". 

I'm not sure how to get her using it and excited about what she can do in it... whenever I journal she wants a page of my journal, so I thought it'd be cool to get her own, because journals are one thing I will share, but that I really don't like to share.  (I'm a writer)

Any ideas, anyone with journaling kids?

ETA:  Wow...I just had the idea of making charts.  It's surprising I didn't think of this earlier, since I love charts and have been trying to figure out how to bring charts into our lives....

I don't want it to be just charts though, and I'll have to figure out how to set it up...so feel free to share likewise. :O

[onatightrope]

Maybe you could suggest she use her journal when you're journaling and she asks for a page in yours?  

Beyond that, I wouldn't push too hard because a journal should be what it's owner wants it to be, and 5 is really really young for that kind of thing, IMO.  

If you wanted to declare it "our journal" and make it something the two of your did together, than maybe you could come up with some kind of journaling routine, but she may not want to do with it what you have in mind right now, and you might need to do most or all of the journaling at this point. 

I'm just guessing at why, but for whatever reason, it seems like she's resisting this activity, and given that this is the unschooling forum, I'd encourage you to respect that, as hard as it is (I know, I've been there many times).

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by featherstory 

Today I asked her to get her journal so we could write down the lyrics to a song she made up since she wanted me to sing it and I didn't know the lyrics.  Then I asked her if she wanted me to help her draw and star and I thought that'd be a good thing to put in the journal, but both times she decided not to do it, even though she thought it was a good idea, she said she'd "do it later". 

I have no suggestions--sorry!  But this passage made me smile.  My girls do this all the time.

[edwardsmom]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

I have no suggestions--sorry!  But this passage made me smile.  My girls do this all the time.

Yeah, that!

My dd made a whole book, titled: The Dragon and The Alligator.  She drew pictures, made a cover, and a matching bookmark and told me all the dialog, but didn't write it down.  I asked if she wanted me to help, and she said "Yes, we'll do it later", that was about 3 or 4 months ago.  I brought it up a couple of times, and she still says "later".

Edited by edwardsmom - 10/24/12 at 2:36pm

[zebra15]

Well you bought your DD a journal for HER birthday.  Now you seem a bit upset that shes not using the journal how you want her to use it??    For starters your DD is only 5 yrs old.  Many 5 yr olds can't write yet.  Not all kids or adults even like to journal.  Maybe she wants to journal with you.  

My kiddo had art journals for many years.  Instead of writing he would draw.  But at age 5 the graph paper would totally throw him off.

Now at 12 yrs old my kiddo still does lots of things 'later'.

[featherstory]

Well, my 5 year old loves to write...but it is often random sheets of paper that are then drawn, painted over, torn into pieces and made into dolls or pretend food or other things...and then thrown away.

She has expressed the want to journal, make charts, etc.  so it is not exactly that I am wanting her to do it the way I want it to be...just that these are things she has already expressed interest in, I just see how it would be great to use journals for these purposes.

For instance sometimes I create numerology art and it looks really decoratively, so she has wanted me to show her how to do them as well, but it is usually at an inconvenient time and we just use whatever paper we have available, with a journal she could see what we've done and practice on her own later and compare...and I thought all these different things she wants to do with pen and paper anyway, could go into the journal and actually be saved rather than ripped apart... the graph paper doesn't throw her off at all though...she'll write on anything,  what I probably need to do is put it out at a certain time in a certain place so she can see it and decide to use it...as it is, it has been stored in her backpack and only used when we didn't have any other paper around.

Also, not upset at all...but with my daughter it is good to have things organized for her and so I'm trying to set things up for her so she can get comfortable with it. 

[SweetSilver]

Those kinds of things have a way of sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting, until suddenly they get used up.  The origami activity books I bought for the girls sat and sat there until they did 10 projects.  Then they sat and they sat until yesterday we did a few more and my 7.5yo folded a couple on her own (I helped interpret the instructions).  This is one example in a thousand I could list exactly like this.

It sounds like your daughter is a bit more disorganized than you are and is content with that.  If that's true, some of that is age appropriate and some of that is nature.  DD1 still needs to learn some tidying-up habits (age appropriate), but her operating habits are generally organized (nature).  My youngest, 6yo, moves from one game to the next (age appropriate) and her games are sprawling and chaotic--the more, the merrier (nature).   Both love when I help organize their space, and that indeed seems to spark new energy and creativity, but they also do just fine creating their own sense of organization.  Their organizational needs (regarding our space, our time and our projects) are a bit different from mine, and while I think sharing good habits with them can be helpful, often they find new ways to fulfill their needs that I haven't thought about.

(Warning: my daughter is watching and she is asking I write in different color "ink")

My youngest will indeed do project on top of project.  Mostly, the joy is in the doing and not as much in the keeping (until it is, and it turns out the piece I recycled last week and is long gone is the one she is asking for).  DD1 doesn't seem to care that much either way.  The keeping is more my thing.  DD1 recently has liked to keep lists of horses she wants to collect for her Farm and we are working on ways to keep these lists together that works for me (so I am not asked to find them) and for her (something she enjoys and can work with).  I bought a binder for her (which is sitting and sitting and sitting there, BTW.....) but she has instead started adding them to a silver-sparkle colored composition book I bought for her years ago (which had been sitting and sitting and sitting there!)

Unschooling at our house can seem a bit random at times.  A few things are a given everyday, for the most part, but other things seem to move in fits and starts.  If the ideas are mine--like beading, knitting, woodworking, origami, writing in pretty composition books, etc.-- those things tend to sit (and sit and sit and sit) for quite a long time before they dive into it for a day, then not again for a month or more.  

I guess these external ideas take time to intrinsically incorporate on a regular basis (I hope that makes sense).  I also struggle with the notion that my girls are just not excited about the same things I loved at their age.  That's even harder to let go of than the interests I have picked up as an adult.  I also am learning to let go of focussing on how the girls organize their projects.  They do them in a different order, with different techniques, and I struggle with that simmering frustration, but at the same time I know that learning those things for themselves is just as important as the project they are working on.  So, the end result looks a bit more chaotic to my adult eyes--not as polished, sometimes not even recognizable in any context except their own (if they say it's a barn, then it's a barn, and the fact that the toy cow fits inside clinches it!)

Long story (with perhaps more information than was necessary) short, I would let that journal sit in her backpack for a long time.  Don't put it out where she will see it.  Let her forget about it for a while.  She is telling you in her 5yo way that now is not the time.  Since this is the unschooling forum, this is the time to say, gently, "mama, let this one go for a while".  You can share the important things in other ways for the time being.  

[featherstory]

Definitely not too information.  I like seeing how things work for other families, similarities and differences.  I have definitely thought that since my daughter is officially school age I should be amping up the learning...turns out I am not as unschooly as I thought...I have learned a lot in the past week(s) about learning together and deschooling... although I've been an unschooling advocate since before I had children and "studied" literacy and learning in college.

It doesn't  help that my parents have been questioning what I'm doing with my kids' education lately, but I'm excited to learn and adapt and let go more...

[SweetSilver]

Maybe you are more unschooly, but maybe you are like all the other schooled parents USing their kids (which is MOST OF US!)-- you have to deschool yourself as you go along and you think you are deschooled enough until something new pops up.  It's easier if you don't have family putting pressure on you.

In the end, you find what works for your family and do that for as long as it fits your needs, no apologies necessary to anybody.

[rumi]

We used to have a routine where dd would tell me what she wanted to write and I wrote it in her journal for her.  Sometimes at night before sleeping, but not always.  It was really great while it lasted ... now that she can write she doesn't want me to write for her but then she doesn't write often either, but she still has her journal.   And we still have almost 3 years worth of journals from her early childhood.