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A Family Journal
By Polly | May 12, 2008
Families with purpose are families who dream together and work together to make their dreams and goals a reality.
Sometimes it gets really hard to keep track of it all. Even though we have good intentions, keeping track of your family’s memories, family goals, and great times can be hard. It isn’t an easy task to sort through hundreds to family photo’s looking for the perfect one that you can absolutely remember being taken but for the life of you can’t find. And when you have family vacation discussions documented on the not so fail proof system of sticky notes, it dawns on you that there must be a better way to capture the dreams, discussions, goals, and memories of your family life. A way that doesn’t take a lot of time and one in which it is okay to use white out and hand drawn pictures.
So if your family is anything like ours, a Family Journal may be the answer; a simple way of expressing and recording of your family’s life, dreams, and memories without a lot of fuss and most importantly without a lot of anxiety and time.
What is a Family Journal?
Simply stated, a Family Journal is an on-going diary of your family’s life. Use it to capture family outing and vacation memories, record your family goals, make notes about family discussions and plans, and capture the thoughts and feelings of yourself and growing children. Think of it as a working draft of the family photo album or scrapbook. And the best part of a Family Journal is that it is meant to be used by every family member. Parents and kids alike are encouraged to express themselves and their thoughts and memories of their family. A Family Journal isn’t meant to be something else for mom or dad to do, but rather as a way for every family member to get involved and document the things important to them.
How to Make a Family Journal
All you need to make a Family Journal is some type of journal or notebook, some pens and pencils or crayons and markers, a little glue, and enthusiasm.
Start by choosing your Family Journal. It doesn’t have to be expensive. A simple notebook from your local store will do fine, just choose one that fits your family’s personality and is big enough to work with and in. A general rule of thumb is that the smaller your kids, the bigger the Family Journal. Young kids like to draw and have large hand writing, so be sure to choose a journal that accommodates these needs.
Next, start by asking one of the kids to make the title page. Encourage them to add a family photo, draw pictures, and add their own unique style and thoughts. Also be sure to date the title page in some way, so that you can remember when it was started.
After the title page the rest of the journal is completely up to you and your family. Here are some suggestions for things to include and how to use your Family Journal.
Christmas and Birthday Wish Lists
Family Mission Statements
Family Photo’s and Notes from Vacations, Good Times, and Outings
Notes from Family Meetings
Favorite Family Recipes
Your Favorite Things
Family Chores
Ticket Stubs, Maps, Postcards, Awards, Ribbons, and Other Memorabilia
Important Dates
Pressed Flowers from Special Occasions
Use a Couple Pages as a Guest Book for Big Family Gatherings like Thanksgiving and Christmas
Thanksgiving Blessings
New Year Resolutions
Love Notes
How to Make the Most of Your Family Journal
Here are some tips to making the most of your Family Journal.
Make it something for everyone in the family. Let your kids express themselves in any way they see fit. A Family Journal shouldn’t be something the kids need to ask permission to use.
Keep the Family Journal displayed or stored in a prominent place so that you don’t forget to use it.
Have it handy during family meetings so that you can use it to keep notes.
Make it real not perfect.
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Topics: Building Strong Families, Family Fun, Family Time, Living the Dream |
May 12th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
thanks for all the wonderful ideas about the family journal. We use ours from Once Upon a Family, and just love it, but this has expanded on some of the ideas I give my customers….thank you!
blessings on the journey,
Jen
http://www.familylifememories.com
May 13th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I’ve been meaning to start something like this for a while now. The only thing I’ve been able to do consistently is January 1st of every year, I take out our huge old video camera and record each child reflecting on the past year, and setting goals for the coming year. It is so fun to see these clips back to back from the last five years. They grow up right before your eyes on one tape. We love it.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
[...] A Family Journal [...]
June 16th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
[...] and the images of the stamps found in the letterboxes, families will need some type of journal. A family journal is a great option for this or a nature notebook is another [...]