Summer Activities: Journal Writing for Kids

If you do regular summer writing with your children, then your kids' writing skills will not be lost during the busyness of summer activities. There are many kids' writing activities for school age children during the summer to choose among from story starters to writing prompts to journal writing. In the summer, journal writing for kids works the best on a regular basis, and it can be worked into your daily routine--even on vacation. Here's how it works:

1. You and your child buy a notebook or journal for summer writing.
2. Take time to decorate your notebooks. Have fun--use paint, stickers, glitter, markers, and so on.
3. Explain to your child that this is his summer writing journal, and you have one, too. (It is very important for you to be on board with a journal to model good writing skills and behavior.) You are going to write in these journals throughout the summer about different things you do. You can write exactly what happened or make up a story or even write a poem.
4. Decide on a schedule with your child. This works best with kids' writing activities, so they know what to expect. Will you write every day? Three times a week? Stick to the schedule, and show your child that writing is as important as the other summer activities.

When it is time to write in your summer journals as part of your activities for school age children during the summer, then both you and your child should grab a pencil, your journals, and get to writing! When you are first starting out with your child or if he is a reluctant writer, then you may have to work on journal entries together or do some modeling. For example, if you are planning to write about a family reunion that you attended, you and your child may write the same first sentence in your journals. Then you can ask your child, "What do you remember about the reunion? What was the most fun for you?" Encourage him to write these feelings and thoughts down while you write down your own.

On a different day, you may do a different kid writing activity. Maybe you will write a poem about the swimming pool. Another idea is to take a summer activity and turn it into a fiction story. Let's say you visited a farm. Can you and your child make up a story about a pig on the farm and a problem he may have? Finally, you could write a list. Make a list of all the fun things you want to do in July together, and write them in your journal.

The important thing about kids' writing activities for school age children during the summer is to make them fun. Show your excitement, even if your child is reluctant at first. Your enthusiasm and good attitude during the journal writing time will encourage your child to have fun with these summer writing activities.