I had the kids do journaling today. I told my oldest he had to write at least 3 sentences about anything he wanted. Well..... he didn't know what to write about.... this is hard.... he doesn't like journaling..... it's stupid! :roll: So I told him to write about his favorite thing to do...... he doesn't like to do anything.... nothing is fun.... this is stupid! LOL This is what he finally wrote: I like to do nothing like school. I don't like anything in school. School is stupid. When he finished I said now see, that wasn't too hard..... "Yes it was!!":lol::roll:
Yeah, my son was like that too. He progressed from there to pages filled with "boring, boring, boring" or "die, die, die". We don't journal anymore - definitely in the too hard basket.
I might be tempted to have them develop their ideas further. You know, state your contention, provide evidence, conclusion. I don't like school because.... reason 1 - specific evidence, reason 2 - specific evidence, etc. conclusion. LOL
hahahahaha I love that story! I have one to share.... My twins are 8 and my DD is 5.5 years... They all journal ONCE a class day. Here are the rules... Write something.... Anything.. Either the suggestion I give you, or anything you wish...... Here are the helps.... You will not be graded on punctuation, grammar, spelling, handwriting, nor usage.... just write..... Doodle images of what you are writing about.... be creative.... I wanted them to have ONE thing a day where they were free to write without mom over their shoulder, so to speak... they have come around.... and they finally believe me that I am NOT going to grade them nor correct their writings... Last week, while the suggested subject was "If I were invisible, what would I do with it?".. my younger twin wrote.... "If I were invisible, I would scare the wood off trees!" hahahahahaha! It was only one sentence with messy handwriting and capital letters in the middle of words......... and a bunch of scribbles and doodles of scared "Naked" trees.... but it was AWESOME for a journal entry! We can go back, maybe later and have him use that as the muse for a short story>>???? Cool, eh? These journals will be classics in ten years to sit back and read, eh?
LOL!! That is funny! Don't you just love the way their little minds work!:lol: I'm the same way. As long as he's writing something I'm happy. He has a great imagination and a wonderful mind for figuring out problems. I just want him to be able to take his ideas a little farther.... from speaking to writing them down.
Ok, but I read somewhere, something that made me think.... The early years are full of learning, but there is no greater leasson, than learning that learning is FUN... Therefore the child should have ONE opportunity a day to write freely, no restrictions, no corrections, no critiques... theirs and theirs alone, ownership breeds pride.... Encourage, creativity by saying that you can write about anything you want, even pretending to be someone else when you write..... (Which is a lesson in point of view but don't tell them that!)... and encourage doodling as well, because they are ILLUSTRATING their "Books".. This give them the sensation of Pleasure associated with writing.... it is slow and subconscious.. but it works... (My opinion, of course)... And when they do share something with you that is off the wall and out of left feild.. GOOD! DANCE! Celebrate them! They are thinking outside of the box! Yea for them! And they will be even more encouraged to work, and more likely to NOT have writers' block, because they will not have anyone over their shoulder, while writing... It took my children TWO YEARS to figure out that not everything in life is a fill in the blanks type of thing... there is NOT always a "Right" answer. Sometimes their opinion was OK, no matter what they wrote... it was VERY liberating for them! Sorry if this goes on.. just trying to save you from a fight that might be avoided, but I am just reading a posting, and may not understand the whole thing, so it is just an opinion. My kids still whine.... But I limit them to 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the day.. and I will say.. Five more minutes, then put them away. and they tend to get busy... Once I made a proud big deal about one child's book THEY ALL began to write without much complaint Because of course, positive attention is currency to younger children, depending on their age and personality.
Oh, I agree with you... it probably didn't seem like it from my post but journaling is supposed to be a 'free' time during the school day. Even though I did get a little annoyed with him today with all his drama I didn't show it and when he finally did write something I praised him. Honestly, he was just in a weird mood today. I think he wanted to be disagreeable just to see what I would do. (His brother tried to give him ideas of things to write and he shot them all down) Once he saw that I didn't care what he wrote and it didn't faze me that he thought school was stupid, he did the rest of his work with no complaint. But as soon as we were through he spent the rest of the day picking fights with everyone around him.
I tried journaling with my ds last year and it was such a headache. He fought and fussed the whole way and I gave the same freedom, write what you want, it wont be graded...etc. He just hated writing. I think that next year or maybe after Christmas break this year, we might pick it back up for both of them.
We read an article once that gave me an idea to try. It's called the "Hidden Journal" Basically, it's a journal book hidden in the house. The rules are simple. If you find it, you have to write or draw in it. It must be dated, but not signed. It can be anything you wish, but must not be negative or hurtful. The book has stayed hidden sometimes for months. Othertimes it was purposely hidden for a certain person to find it (can you say "underwear drawer"?) Now, after years (Thank goodness I started with a BIG THICK journal) the kids spend hours pouring over it and remembering when. Now it's poems, short stories and cartoon strips but they still enjoy it.
yea, my girls both were like that, now they both love the Journal.. google and you can come up with tons of starters for jornals that will help them get started. Any thing neat is wonderful Like one day I was walking down the road and this duck flow out of the sky and land by me, he said.... We were riding in our car when a green man stop for direction, we told him... I was riding my bike with my friend and we found this neat rock... Last night I was laying in bed and I see three stars they were talking to me and said... When I was horsebacking riding I told the horse.... on and on it can go these are just a few we use.. it helps them get going...
I wasn't pointing out any age, I just gave some sample of what you can do by google. No age in mind....
Dear Kris Oh, I just wonder whether I can use them for my 12yo. May be too childish for her. I just started letting them doing journals but on field trips or movies they watched. that's all. So, when you gave those wonderful ideas / question for journal writing, I thought it was cool. Great ideas
I want to thank you for starting this thread and getting me in gear, I forgot tohand out the journals this year !
Ems loves to journal. It is free writing and never graded. Although I do go through it and the words that are often misspelled find there way onto her spelling list. LOL I do not think journaling is for everyone. Some kids love it. Some just need a charge to get them going while others hate it.
I think they would be perfect for a 12 yr old, in fact they sounded like things my dd would enjoy writing about and she is 14? The fun stuff like that sometimes makes journaling easier... Then eventually they can journal what happened that day. Which is what I want mine to do, they have started in the past that way with one liners like --" We did school today." or "Mom said I have to write in my journal but it's dumb" then there are fun things like "Why do I have to write in this journal? I don't know what to write... I don't know I don't know I cant think of anything else to write so oh well." Lol i find thorugh the years when we find thier old journals that they crack up at thier own writing and see how little they actually wrote in them.
