Writing. . . it can be almost be a bad word among home educators. It is easy to feel you are not doing enough, and it can be a struggle with our students. I want to share about the benefits of your student keeping a journal. It is an old idea that might be a great fit for your student.
First, there are some universal truths about writing and writers.
1. Few people are born great writers. Really. Most writers work very hard to develop their craft over time. It is a tedious process. To do this. . .
2. Writers must write. You can not become a writer by thinking about writing, dreaming about writing, or even reading others writing. Though any of those things may help, you must write to become a writer.
3. Many famous writers have kept a journal or diary. For instance, Franz Kafka, C.S. Lewis, Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Virginia Wolf, George Lucas, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Isaac Newton, Anne Frank, Madeleine L'Engle. . .
“You want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you,”
~Madeleine L'Engle
Having your student keep a journal is an excellent strategy to improve their writing. A simple notebook or word processor is all you need to get started. For most students I would simply set a timer for 15 minutes and tell them to write until it buzzed.
Decide ahead of time whether this will be a journal that is only for the student, if it is one they plan to share with others, and if they want you to give feedback. My daughter and I wrote back and forth in a journal to each other for many years. My feedback kept her writing. It also deepened our friendship.
So whether you grab a loose-leaf notebook and fill it with paper, a composition book or a fancy journal, having your student keep a journal is a valuable way to encourage them to write.
P.S. Below I have included some fun ones I found on Amazon. Just for fun.
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