Journal Writing for Kids

Unlike AM who is all chatty and spontaneous, AZ is more reserved and will only be her true self when she is among family and friends. Even then, I realize that she finds that it is pretty challenging for her to express her emotions. This proves rather difficult as she prefers to keep her feelings to herself. Thus, I have to be more alert with every tiny, little sign that might give me clues as to what sort of emotions she is having at that time. Like when hen she is suddenly quiet and refuses to cooperate, I know that something is bothering her. Normally, I have to pull her aside and prompt her with questions before we could really address the issues together.

The Kame Hame Ha reference to Dragonball really put me and my husband to stitches (since AM and AZ probably couldn''t understand it as much).

When she chose this book and told me how much she loved the story, somehow I got the idea of having her doing the same exact thing as the main character in the story did: keeping a diary. The book, Diari Conteng Jimi (loosely translated as Jimi's Doodling Diary) is basically similar as those of Wimpy Kids series. But I guess, the former seems to appeal more as the theme is much much more closer to home. The writer, Fadhli Hamdan has a website, conteng-conteng.com so you might want to head over there and check out his other books too. 

To not intimidate AZ, as the idea of asking her to write down her day-to-day experience on a piece of paper can be a bit tedious, I didn't put any rules as to what can go into the diary. I even chose a postcard sized, Hello Kitty book for her and we didn't even call it a diary, but we call it her creative book. I told her she can decorate one page every day and she gets to use our washi tapes, stickers, colouring pens etc (which we would normally save up for school projects) as long as she promises to take good care of them. And while she is at it, why not write something on it. Things that you like and you don't like. 

So, this is her first page. She has to do everything by herself, from cutting, drawing and writing; that is the main rules. It took her quite a while to think of what to write and decorate. But I really love the fact that she gives a title before she continues telling her story of the day. 

It didn't take long before AM decide to join too. 

This one is by AM as he wrote about traveling to the different countries and Malaysian's favourite drink, teh tarik.

I love it that although they didn't write or draw a lot, each element in the page becomes a conversation starter. AZ continues to tell me about other things that make her smile and AM further explains that the man in the picture is mad because the price of teh tarik is absurdly high, and guess what, it is the truth.