How To Get Kids to Express Themselves Through Journaling

Guest post by K.T. Mehra

Children and teens often feel intense emotions and it can be difficult to get them to speak about it or express themselves. Your child may not want to talk to you about these things. Keeping these stresses and feelings untold can lead to anxiety and other health problems. Journaling is a great way to healthily express these emotions and it can also be a fun experience for kids.

How Journaling Benefits Your Child

There are many benefits to journaling, especially for children or teens. Journaling will allow your child a safe place to express their thoughts and feelings as well as provide them with daily writing practice. Your child can also use their journal as a place for doodles and other drawings. Drawing and writing are great ways to explore feelings and ideas.

Tweens and teens often have a lot of emotion and new experiences that they don’t feel comfortable sharing. Writing can help them express these feelings and work through them. If your child is embarrassed by their writing, a journal is a perfect solution because they can lock it away and be sure no one will read it.

Writing is a great exercise that can be therapeutic to young minds. They can write about things that are on their mind and it can help them work through problems by getting them out on paper. They can journal before bed and get out all their thoughts so they can have better sleep.

A journal is also a great place to write down and appreciate everything good in your day. Tweens and teens especially will appreciate a creative space that’s just for them that they know no one else will have access to.

CLICK FOR THE NEWSLETTER AND BE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT OUR UPDATES

Journaling can be a great creative outlet for younger kids as well. Decorating with doodles or stickers can be fun and calming for your child. They will also be getting daily writing and drawing practice without even realizing it. Writing every day will make your child better at the written word which is a great skill to have. If your child wants to write stories in their journal or draw pictures, encourage it. This is a great way to build skills without it feeling like a chore.

How To Get Your Child Started in Journaling

If you don’t already have a journal yourself, consider getting one. It may provide you the same benefits. Your child will also be much more likely to write in their journal if they know you have one.

Make it an exciting event and take them out to buy their very own journal and even a nice pen they can write with. Let them pick out their favorite notebook, whether it be a more mature blank notebook or a little pink journal with a lock and key. There is no wrong notebook to journal. Your child will be more interested in writing in something that they choose and like.

Make sure your child knows that their journal is just for them. Knowing that it is a safe space that no one else will get into will give them the freedom to write whatever they want. Let them know that their journal is a place they can express themselves without any judgment and that they are the only ones who will see it. They may even enjoy locking it up and hiding the key!

CLICK FOR THE NEWSLETTER AND BE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT OUR UPDATES

How To Get Your Kids To Express Themselves Through Journaling

If your child is having trouble starting their journal or writing every day, consider giving them some help. Finding or coming up with prompts is a good way to get them started writing if they don’t know where to begin.

Consider prompts such as “Write something that made you happy today”, or “Write about something that you want to accomplish in the future”. These prompts will help your child begin writing and they may get pulled into writing more once they get started. It’s a good idea to promote positivity in your child’s journal along with expressing their true feelings.

Make sure there is no pressure on your child as this might discourage them from journaling. If they don’t want to write one day, allow them to just doodle or skip a day. If they know it’s not something they have to do and is something that is fun for them to do, they will be much more likely to do it.

K.T. Mehra is an entrepreneur and an expert on fountain pens and ink. She founded Goldspot Pens to sell fountain pens, high quality inks, and various other writing instruments. She loves beautiful handwriting, letter writing, and great literature. With a pen store located in New Jersey, K.T. has seen all kinds of writers come through and heard their stories and techniques. She wants to share what she’s learned to help writers explore their craft.