Trying Something New

I have always liked the idea of writing in journals for my kids but have never been very successful at it. Last year I became inspired once again when I heard a father speaking about the many great things his children learned by writing in their personal journals once a week. He would print up photos each week of something each child did, then they would attach their photo to their journal and write about it.

I thought of the great potential there would be in having my kids do something like that, so I was excited! I went and bought binders for the kids, helped them decorate them, and pulled out all sorts of paper and photos we already have and let them start. There were a few obvious problems from the start. The first is that I am terrible at getting photos printed up, so I didn't have a lot of current photos. Lily wasn't writing at the time, so it left me and Ez to help Lily, Joe, and Evelyn with their journals. David does not like to write, so he whined about the activity the entire time. So pretty much only Alexis was enjoying it, and it was too much work for just one kid to like it, so I abandoned it after only a few weeks.

I came up with a better solution after seeing a few friends do something similar--I have started a blog for each of the kids! Alexis has been wanting one for a while, so she is rather excited. David and Lily are pretty excited too! The great thing is that I don't have to worry about printing photos, they are just on the computer. The big kids can each do their own typing and I can help edit it afterwards.

I am hoping this will be a much better solution and a way for the kids to find their voice and express themselves. We'll see how it goes!