Summer Journals

These are our summer journals.

I got the idea from Guy's preschool teachers.  Every day or so, I ask my children to draw on a topic, usually something they've been talking about a lot.  Then I label it and date it on the back.  Here are our first entries.  I asked the kids to "draw about" what they think their school classes will be like next year.  Even two-year-old Autumn participates, although she draws just her favorite items so far.  

Another writing prompt that I gave them last week was "Draw about your worst dream."  Guy knew just what to draw, since he'd had a nightmare earlier that week.  This activity opens up some nice conversations for us.  And Guy "drew a solution" into his "bad dream".  He drew a school mate protecting him.  I asked him about it, because I didn't remember him mentioning this part of the dream the first time he told me about it.  He said,"Well, I wasn't sure what Ryan was doing in the dream, so I imagined him protecting me."  Nightmare resolved...all on his own!  I like it.

Scarlett couldn't think of a nightmare to draw, so she made one up:  Her future teacher Miss Ann getting caught in a storm was her idea of a "bad dream".

Each child has a folder and we keep our pictures in order by date.  These are our summer journals, and they are quickly becoming a treasure to each of us.

PS - A reader on Sugardoodle asked about a list of writing prompts/questions to get the kids writing/drawing.  I found a pretty creative list of journal prompts at Super Teacher Worksheets.