If you thought journaling is only something teens and adults could do, you’re in for a big surprise! While it might look a little different for kids, depending on their age, they can benefit a lot by writing in a journal. Here are some of those benefits.
Kids Get to Express Their Feelings in a Safe Environment
Journaling provides a safe, private, non-judgmental space for kids to write about anything they want, including what they are thinking or feeling. It is important that as a parent, you allow your children’s journals to remain private and only for their eyes, unless they ask otherwise.
While your kids probably feel safe talking to you about certain things, they also need a place that is all theirs. Where they know they won’t have a voice on the other end commenting on it. Kids can really flourish just being given a journal that is private, that you promise to never read unless they ask you to. You will be amazed by how much less stressed your kids become.
It Can Improve Their Writing and Reading Skills
The more your kids write and read what they write, the more these skills are going to improve! Think about all the times your children currently write or read anything. It is probably mostly for school and homework, maybe some reading on their devices or books they love. But what about writing? Kids very rarely write much aside from school work.
Journaling gives them a daily practice where they can improve their writing skills, but in a way that ends up being enjoyable for them. They answer fun questions like what their favorite animal is and if they could be any tree, what would they be? It doesn’t feel much like homework.
Kids Become More Creative
Journals have also been known to help children become more creative. Not just with the way they work out what they want to write, but in how they design their different journal pages. Kids often excel when they can use color and design on their journal pages.
You might want to try out blank journal pages without lines, so they can treat it like a doodle page. Provide crayons, colored pencils, watercolor, stencils, stickers, and different types of pens. You will be able to see where your child’s mind goes when they are using their journal.
Journaling Helps with Critical Thinking and Communication Skills
Writing in a journal can also help kids of different ages develop more critical thinking skills and even improve their communication skills. It takes a little critical thinking to answer a question asked in a writing prompt, even one that might seem simple to you. This is a wonderful skill for kids of any age to learn through journaling.
Journaling Can Reduce Their Stress and Anxiety
Sometimes, when you have all those anxious thoughts and stress stuck in your head, it makes it worse. But with journaling, it is a way to get it out of your head, and release all of that tension. It becomes a way of acknowledging it, then letting it go.
This can also be another way to practice mindfulness, as they are able to just focus on what it is right in that moment, without worrying so much about the past or future. All that can be controlled is the present, so that is what they focus on when they write in their journal and in a positive way.
Positivity Encourages Creativity, Goal-Setting, and Personal Development
When kids and teens write in a more positive manner in their journal, it helps identify goals, improve their creativity, and improve their lives as a whole. The positivity mindset helps to train them to think of the bright side of things, no matter how difficult life gets.
While journaling should never have rules and always remain non-judgmental, it does help with kids to have more of a positive mindset. This doesn’t mean they never maintain honesty in how they are truly feeling, but end a negative thought with a positive one. It is Possible to Be Positive and Honest at the Same Time
One thing people don’t understand is that a journal is just meant to write out everything bugging you, pissing you off, stressing you out, and bumming you out. But that isn’t the case. You can still have a positive mindset, while also being brutally honest in your journal.
There is a balance you want to strike here, which you can teach your kids and teens when it comes to the mindset they have about journaling. Teach them that every time they have a negative thought, it is okay to write it down, but then flip it and find something positive about it.
Journaling is Helpful for Gratitude and Appreciation
Kids especially can benefit by being positive with expressing their gratitude in their journal. They learn from a very young age that no matter how little you think you have, there are always amazing blessings in your life. That is important to be thankful for them each and every day.
There are many ways journaling can help someone, from finding clarity to expressing your emotions, but there are some unique advantages for pre-teens and teenagers. Here are some of the top benefits for teens who start using a journal on a daily basis.
It Improves Their Self-Esteem and Confidence
The reason we encourage kids and teens to write in a journal, among the many other benefits, is because it can help a lot with their confidence and self-esteem. You are probably aware of how fragile this can be in your youth, and want to help your kids grow up feeling confident as much as possible. Journaling is a wonderful way to do that.
If there is one thing that most teens universally struggle with, it is their self-esteem. This sometimes start when they are younger, but typically starts around ages 12 or 13. Through journaling, they discover so much about themselves, including what might be causing the low self-esteem and ways to improve their confidence.
This is especially true with the use of positive thoughts, positive affirmations, and journal prompts about self-esteem and body confidence. If your teens struggle in this area, it is definitely worth looking into the right types of journal prompts.
Explore Kids’ and Teens’ Issues with Self-Esteem
The thing with low self-esteem is that most people don’t recognize right away, especially adolescents. Your kids might not even realize they are struggling with self-confidence. This is what journaling is going to open up for them.
Just through the act of writing with open and honesty, both kids and teenagers often discover patterns of negative self-talk. This can give them a little insight into their own self-esteem issues, and work to overcome it also with the help of the journal.
Journaling Can Reduce Their Stress
Journaling has been known to reduce stress for people of all ages, including your teenagers. Through the act of writing out what you are thinking and how you are feeling, including what you might consider negative thoughts, it helps to get it out of your head. There is a type of freedom you feel when it is no longer consuming you. You might still think about it sometimes, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming and like it is taking up too much space in your head.
It Helps with Mindfulness
Mindfulness can be really powerful for your teenage kids, which is also a skill they can bring into adulthood. Mindfulness with journaling is really easy to do. Have your teenagers write about what they are currently thinking or feeling. Not what they were doing last week or earlier that day, and not what they plan to do tomorrow. Just focus on right now, this very moment as they are writing. This simple act gets them used to practicing mindfulness in such a basic way.
Self-Reflection for the Future
Among the many struggles of this age, is not knowing what you want to do with your life, and feeling pressured to make a decision. Self-reflection and seeking clarity is such an amazing benefit from journaling.
No matter what age your teens are, from 13 to 19, they are probably a little confused about their direction in life. What to study in college, whether they want to go to college, what type of job they want, where they want to live after they graduate, what will happen to their friendships and relationships, how life is going to change.
They can get the answers to all this and more just by using their journal.
Using prompts for Building Confidence
With confidence, it is not something you don’t have one day, and just shows up the next day. It happens slowly, over time, and with a lot of work. Luckily, there are journal prompts that can help tremendously.
Journal prompts for confidence often vary between determining a person’s confidence and self-esteem level, and trying to figure out where their mindset is. Here are a few examples:
Using Positive Wording in the Journal
Being positive when writing in a journal can help a lot, especially when writing about ones’ self. This is a technique that does take a little practice, but you can give your kids or teens prompts that require them to do this. For example, have them write down something they don’t love about themselves, but frame it in a positive way.
If your teenager wishes they were better at math, they can either write down a list of other subjects they are really good at, or write down how can improve their math skills.
Using Daily Affirmations for Lifting Them Up
Try introducing the use of affirmations with your kids and teens, giving them a positive statement that makes them feel good about themselves. Help your kids and teens focus on their strengths, good character and positive attributes, which in turn boost their self-esteem and creativity, teach them positive focus, optimism and confidence.
Have them choose a daily affirmation, and write it down in their journal.
Affirmations like: