Journals Help Kids Express Themselves

As parents, we truly treasure our children. We want to know what things they love, what makes them happy, how they are learning and growing in life. One excellent way to help your child deal with the everyday stresses we all encounter is to help them keep a journal. Studies have shown that children who learn to write out and express their feelings end up as happier and more effective adults. What have you got to lose?

It is as easy as this:

1. Grab an old Mason jar.
2. Let your child get creative and decorate it.
3. Print out the journal jar prompts for kids and cut them into strips.
4. Fold up each strip and place into the journal jar.
5. Set aside some time each week for your child to pull out a prompt and answer it.

Journal Jar Prompts for Kids

1. What is your favorite sport to play? Why do you enjoy it?
2. How many times have you felt really happy and why?
3. Who is it that helps you the most every day and how?
4. What time of day is your favorite? Why?
5. What makes you laugh? Why?
6. After you go to bed at night, what do you think about?
7. How many dreams do you remember having and what were they about?
8. Who is your favorite superhero and why?
9. When I grow up I want to become a……
10. What is my favorite past time and why?
11. Who is my best friend? What do I love about this person?
12. Why do I enjoy school? What would I change about school?
13. If you had $100 what would you buy?
14. How many people help you during the day? How?
15. If you woke up one morning and you had turned into an adult, what would you miss most about being a kid?
16. What skill do you want to develop that you are not very good at right now?
17. I love it when my mom…..
18. I love it when my dad…..
19. My favorite holiday time tradition is….
20. Why is school important to you? What can you do to make it better?
21. If you lived to be 100 years old who do you think you will become?
22. Where have you visited that you loved to go?
23. How many people do you think you have helped? How?
24. What are you good at that you can get really, really good at?
25. What musical instruments do you like and want to play?
26. Which type of music makes you want to dance?
27. Is there something you really want to do in life but you are kind of afraid to?
28. How are you like your mother?
29. Where would you go on vacation if you could do anything?
30. Who would you spend the night with camping if you could choose?
31. What sport do you wish you could get really, really good at?
32. What is one thing that has been hard for you that you overcame?
33. Have you ever made someone really happy? What did you do and how did you feel after?
34. If I could learn one new skill it would be…
35. My hero is……. And why I want to become like them?
36. What has been the scariest thing to happen to you? What did you do to overcome it?
37. What is the best thing to happen to you?
38. Who do you want to be like when you have grown up and why?
39. If you could run your school for one whole day what would you do differently?
40. Which subject in school is your worst and what can you do to be better?
41. How are you like your father?
42. Tell me about your grandparents? What memories of them do you love the most?
43. What book do you wish you could jump into the pages of and become part of their world?