Journaling for Young Minds and Hearts

A while back I bought this journaling prompts book. It asks questions like, "If you could create your own ice cream flavor, what would it be?" I'm not scoffing at its content necessarily, but I have begun to think about things a little differently than I once did.

I want everything my children do in their school day (and otherwise) to be purposeful.

I found this book to be somewhat purposeless and a waste of time given that goal. I tried searching online for some ideas and found very little that was helpful in this area. I'd like to offer to you some thoughts and some examples of what I started doing.

(We use Christian Cottage Unit studies. Whether you use this same study material or not, this style of journaling can be tailored to your specific needs.)

I began by asking myself,

What would purposeful journaling

look like?      

Does it serve a purpose at all?

 I came to the conclusion that yes, journaling does serve a purpose. As Luann Budds states in her book  Journal Keeping: Writing for Spiritual Growth,

“One of my conclusions is that to live an authentic spiritual life, I must be a seeker of the Lord. My seeking should lead me deeper in my knowledge of who He is and how I can more intimately love Him. … Keeping a journal helps me to live as a seeker.”

So that became my goal─teaching journaling with the purpose of leading my children to become "seekers of the Lord".

Now to the question about what that looks like!

I decided that, to reinforce our unit studies and drive some of it deeper into the heart, I would begin writing my own journal prompts for each of the daily topics covered. Our first unit study in the series is called Roots and Relations. The topics covered are things such as the beginning of life, heredity, family trees, cells and cell division, generational curses, and family heritage. I'll use this first unit to give a sample of the journal prompts I now use:

• Read Genesis 1 and describe how God felt about His creation. When you make something special, do you cherish it? Why?
• Write a poem about being in the family of Christ. How does it feel to be adopted into His family line?
• What are some of the things that you want to pass on to the next generation? What are some things you don't want to pass on?
• Write a prayer of thanks for your family.
  
• Study the different types of temperaments. Why does each of these temperaments require self-control? What are some of the areas of your life that need to be Holy Spirit controlled?
• Write some interview questions for family members. What would you like to know about their faith and lives? Ask these questions of someone and write their answers or record it to watch/listen later.
  

Can you see how these create a "seeker" mindset? Can you see how these questions prepare our children to think for themselves and begin to own their faith? This is the goal of good home school families. To grow their kids into God seekers, ready to face the world with boldness and a great understanding of God's character and His Word.

In the future I'll post some more examples you can use for different units.  

Is there a unit you'd like help creating questions/prompts for? Post a comment and we'll put our heads together!

Here's an article for your reading pleasure. It has some great insights into journaling and its purpose for our spiritual growth.