Mom2MomSC

Usually I hate magazine articles about fun crafts to do with your kids, because they sound complicated, time consuming and expensive. But I read one about doing a family diary that sounded fun and easy, and it has become a big focus in our household, with surprising consequences. Our family diary is a large sketch book that I bought at Michael's. A few times a week I write in it — entries about my kids activities, family events, outings etc. My kids, 4 and 6, draw in it and write messages too. When art projects come home from school, I use a glue stick to paste them in the family diary. We paste in birthday invitations, photos, movie ticket stubs etc. We don't use any bought scrap booking stuff, and the overall effect of the diary is very colorful and kind of messy. But the results have been amazing... My six year old viewed reading as a chore until I started leaving him "secret messages" about himself in the family diary. We are teaching him to read and write a second language at home and it was always a challenge to find enough materials, but this diary has become almost all we need. For my four year old, I write messages about how proud of him I am as he accomplishes strides in maturity and independence. When my children's grandparents come into town, they read the family diary to find out what we've been doing, and add their own messages. And I love saving the kids' art work, in a more or less organized fashion. The family diary sits on an extra chair in our kitchen. I'm a writer so I guess it's not surprising it worked for us.