Diaries for kids?
Why do kids need diaries?
Lot of parents and in some cases even educators are shocked to find a diary of the kids. They think that children don’t need a diary. It is a grown up thing. That’s where we all tend to go wrong. Diaries for kids are like companions. Kids need to have a trusted source whereby they can share their secrets and their feelings. It is not always that they think that their parents or friends fit into this segment. Diaries therefore become a blessing for them.
There are many benefits of encouraging a child to keep a diary. Kids of 8+years can slowly learn to write sentences well and that’s when they can start writing. Ideally, kids of 10+years pick up the meaning of keeping a diary so don’t force the child. Once they get interested in writing in a diary they will do so.
Coming back to the point of benefits, here are they:-
- To comprehend thoughts – When kids write they are able to comprehend their thoughts. It leads to better self understanding.
- Language Acquisition – Children learn language from different sources and then apply in their writing
- Activates reading skills – While writing a diary is a writing skill, it also activates reading skills because children tend to find out more words from stories that they read. It can collaterally activate their listening skills through storytelling opportunities also.
- Emotional Competence – The emotional aspects of the children in terms of their feelings, emotional upheavals like anger or sadness can be put into the writing. This helps in the catharsis of their emotions and can stabilise their feelings.
- Ideas and Brainstorming – A lot of times kids tend to write down their problems too in the diary. This can help them think of the problem in a better way. It can present a solution for them too while their thoughts are penned down. Many times kids have ideas which they write down in their diary. It can help brainstorm ideas related to their projects or learning too.
- Handwriting – The core of handwriting improvement is practice. When children write in the diary, they want it to be personalised and they get the nuances of writing better since they believe the diary is something they would like to refer to later. Thus, handwriting improvement can happen while diary writing itself
- Arts and Culture – Many a times, diary in simple format can lead to artistic venture ie. journaling. Journaling implies writing a diary but with aesthetics. Children can move on to journaling and thereby give more artistic vent to their ideas.
All these ideas, thoughts and benefits can go a long way into ensuring that the diary writing is a great way for children to think, reflect, circumspect and improve their personal self.
Some beautiful examples of diaries that have become books are –
- Anne Frank’s Diary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl
- The Night Diary: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35464020-the-night-diary
- I Capture the Castle: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31122.I_Capture_the_Castle
- The Diary of Killer Cat: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/457936.The_Diary_of_a_Killer_Cat
