Do you keep a journal? Do you teach your children to journal? I started my first journal when I was in eighth grade at the suggestion of my journalism teacher. I started teaching my children to dictate/draw journals as soon as they could talk.

Is your journal just for you or do you keep it so future generations will get to know you?

I have started something I call genealogy journaling. I have those days where I do my day to day thoughts, but about once or twice a month I write about a family member, both living and those who have died. I tell stories I know about them or something they have done for me. I tell about what we may have done together. I am trying to get my 14 year old son to start doing this also.

That's a great idea! I'm worried about the family stories dying, because the storytellers are all gone. I've been trying to get down the ones I remember.

I used to be an avid journal writer, and took a lot of cues from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.

Over time, it became a fabulous way to sort out problems.

However, now that I have a family, I hardly write. When I do, I usually shred it as soon as possible. I don't want to keep my 'ugly' thoughts on paper.

However, I also tried to start a family journal. We just kept a notebook and pen in the kitchen, and whenever anyone saw or thought of something interesting, into the journal it went. With very your children, it was a great way to remember all the milestones and cute things that kids do, especially when talking to grandparents. It was always meant to be a 'public' journal for use by close family.

Over time, as life has gotten more busy though, this practice has fallen by the wayside. Too bad actually. I think as our kids get older, they'll want to know more about their early lives and how they interacted.

Maybe with this reminder I'll re-start the family journal.

Thanks for the reminder.
Anna

I'm keeping a scrapbook of family stories. Sometimes I'll go looking for things, but often, something I see at the scrapbook store reminds me of something from my family history that I don't actually have pictures of. For instance, a page of stickers about Las Vegas reminded me of a funny story my great-aunt told me about when she went to Vegas with her husband and her sister. I write out the stories on sheets of about 5 X 7 paper and put on a larger page with whatever stickers or scrapbooking doo-dads I have. It's helped me remember and document things I had almost forgotten. I've never had anyone in my family interested in looking at the stories I'd written down previously, but they'll look at my scrapbook...

Julie

Special Needs Mom, I have an article on my other site suggesting family journaling is a great Sunday afternoon activity--a quiet family time. It can start with a "Remember When" which is great to get an audio recording of. Then everyone writes their version of it. It's interesting how differently each person perceives the event.

And Julie, that's a great idea. Pictures do tend to hold more interest for some people!