Benefits of Children Using Journals

Writing is basically the embodiment of our thoughts and feelings. There's no better feeling than pouring all of what's going on in your head on a flimsy piece of paper. And while the action itself may seem valueless from a distance, it has more benefits than you'd think. If you want your kid to enjoy the same feeling of putting their thoughts to paper, we'll help you!

Read this article to know the benefits of children using journals!

1. Improves Children's Communication and Writing Skills

On the academic side, your child can gain a lot through journaling. First of all, they'll develop their writing skills as they'll have more practice. You'd be surprised at how journaling improves their vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and spelling.

Not to mention, since journaling allows children to control their writing topics, they'll love writing exercises more than before. Unfortunately, schools often obligate kids to write about mundane topics, which can deter children from writing exercises overall.

Make sure to help your kids choose topics that are of interest to them, and let them draw freely next to their writings. This will improve their creativity, and they'll grow more excited to journal the next time.

On top of all that, children will be able to communicate their feelings better after exercising journaling for a while. They'll feel happier as they jot down their experiences on paper, and they'll grow more communicative as time passes because they'll know how to deliver their words.

To further enhance your children's communication skills, you should ask them to tell you about what's written in their journals. Then, over time, they won't be shy as they share their secret writings with you, and they'll learn how to talk freely to other people about their hopes and dreams.

2. Improves Kids' School Performances

Most parents don't believe journaling benefits kids when it comes to school, but we beg to differ. You can incorporate journaling in many subjects, including science, social studies, mathematics, and many more.

For example, your kid can dedicate a journal for each subject. If mathematics is your child's Achilles Heel, you should encourage them to set up a math journal to exercise and express their feelings about the subject.

It doesn't have to be something big; kids would do just fine with a simple notebook where they can write the formulas and rules that they can't get a grasp of. Then, when they write those in a separate, personal notebook, they'll be able to focus on them more and work on understanding them in their free time.

The kids can also use their journals as a space to work freely, independent from homework and school work. If your child faces a drawback sometimes, he can go back to his writing. This will help cement the rules in his head, and he'll become better with time.

If, for example, science is hard for your kid, he can write all the experiments he's tried in school along with hypotheses and steps. This will help him memorise better because writing our thoughts always makes them stick in our heads.

You can also let him write any scientific facts that interest him. Over time, he'll grow more attached to the school and become a bigger fan of science.

3. Helps Kids Deal With Their Feelings

We've all had a diary sometime in our lives. It helped us let out our feelings and thoughts without talking to people. And while it was pretty tiring to keep it hidden from curious family members, reading it after many years was worth it because it gave us a view of how our life went and how our train of thoughts changed.

While journaling isn't precisely like keeping a diary, they both act as outlets for feelings. As children grow up, they go through many new emotions and experiences. Journaling will help them deal with those because they'll be able to express their thoughts in a non-judgemental area. In addition, they'll be able to process their feelings through writing better.

As children gain more insight into their feelings, they'll develop emotional intelligence. As a result, they'll be able to identify their emotions and deal with them at such a young age.

Many people don't know this, but when kids get in touch with their emotions from an early age, they become more empathetic as they grow up. Moreover, they realise that their feelings are valid, and just because their issues aren't as serious as adult ones doesn't mean that they should be neglected.

4. Enhances Children's Creativity

Creativity is one of the pillars of being a successful person, and it's essential to try and build it in little kids. Giving children a journal to use will let their minds wander to new topics they can write about and how to phrase them. In turn, this will stimulate some neural pathways in their brains to think more creatively.

In addition, storytelling is a talent that kids can develop from a young age, and it requires a fair share of creative thoughts. If you give your child some story prompts to complete in their journal, they'll improve their thinking skills and storytelling abilities a long way. Imagine raising a new Hemingway; sounds incredible, right?

Not to mention, schools don't give creativity much attention as they care more about memorising facts and scientific rules. So if your kid is already imaginative, he'll need an outlet for his thoughts, and that won't be provided in class. That's why you need to work with him to prevent the loss of such a creative mind.

5. Helps Kids Show Gratitude

As a creative twist on the idea of journaling, you can let your kid use a gratitude journal. Gratitude journals have many benefits that'll significantly develop your kid's character. For starters, it'll improve their ability to notice happy details before sad ones. Then, when you give them a task to write things they're grateful for, they'll instantly think about happy moments.

And as children constantly seek validation from their parents, they'll try to write as many happy thoughts as they can to impress you. Your role as a parent comes to light here as you should show your satisfaction with their work. Over time, they'll stop journaling for validation, and they'll start doing it for their own pleasure.

After a while, your child's mentality will shift to being a positive one. They'll grow to love life more and appreciate the happy moments when bad ones come to visit. Not to mention, a gratitude journal does wonders when your child is feeling down. In that case, you can open the journal and let them read about some happy memories, and their mood will boost up again.

6. Relieves Children's Stress

Children experience more stress than you'd think. For example, they face a hard time getting used to school and knowing new people. After leaving their comfort zone, which is their house, the transition sometimes gets too challenging. That's why they need a journal.

When children write down their frustrations and anxieties, they prevent the negative thoughts from bottling up in their heads. Journaling will relieve all of the stress they're feeling in a healthy manner. Kids who don't find a way to let out their negative thoughts often become angrier than kids who do.

Not to mention, some children are too embarrassed to talk to their parents about some issues. Consequently, they might feel too lonely. But a journal comes here as a comfort zone where they can write what's bothering them without having to talk to someone.

7. Encourages Children to Set Goals and Achieve Them

Although children's goals aren't as huge as ours, they're equally as important. If you want your kids to grow to be ambitious and successful, you should encourage them to set goals and work to achieve them.

For example, if your kid loves reading, they should set a goal to read ten stories this month. Then, when they write down their plan in the journal, they'll feel more compelled to achieve it. And when they do achieve it, you'll see a glimmer of pride in their eyes, basking in the fact that they managed to reach their goal.

Kids will also grow more ambitious as they find how satisfying reaching goals really is. They'll gain more confidence in their abilities to achieve what they want. As they grow up, this will increase their self-esteem and make them more confident in their abilities.

To Wrap Up

Raising children isn't the easiest task out there, but it can become a bit smoother through some enjoyable activities like journaling. Journaling will improve your children's skills in ways you couldn't have imagined. It'll improve their language, writing skills, and overall school performance.

Not to mention, journaling will help reduce kids' stress as they'll learn how to let out their negative thoughts and healthily process them. Finally, through this fun activity, you'll raise more grateful and happy kids.

Now that you know enough about the topic, you can take your kid journal shopping!