A family journal can be a simple means to great blessings and benefits for your family! Create a lasting record of your comings and goings, the guests who visit your home, the events and holiday celebrations and share the scribe opportunities with the whole family! Learn more In Trina Holden’s article, 24 Ways and Reasons to Keep a Family Journal. She gives the following suggestions:

What: A sturdy, spiral bound, hard cover book with lines spaced wide enough that a grade-school-er would not be intimidated.

Authors: Anyone in the family who can write legibly, though younger artists are encouraged to add illustrations.

Where: Kept in the open, pen sandwiched inside, ready for instant reporting.

Among the ideas she shares for what to write in your family journal are humorous quotes from the children (or parents!), significant family events, gratefulness lists, and notes from visiting friends. I would add including notes from family members to each other, notes from family councils, hopes and dreams for the family (by all family members), and whatever else seems fun and memorable. Trina gives this list for ways to make family journal writing successful:

• encourage participation from youngest to oldest
• have family recording time, perhaps directly after a meal — everyone can narrate a memory, with one person appointed as scribe
• Don’t put it away — leave it open and available
• Let it double as a guest book!
• Take it in the car
• Bring it on vacation!
• Encourage extended family to contribute to special pages for birthdays
• Don’t be a perfectionist. No one should be graded on punctuation or grammar — the only requirement should be legibility.
• Choose a spiral bound book — they’re much easier to write in than one with traditional binding.
• Bonus Idea: A Family Journal makes a great gift! Gift wrap a quality journal for a family Christmas or housewarming gift, with a nice pen and a copy of this article so they’ll know what to do with it!

Among the top benefits and blessings of keeping a family journal is that a record is being kept of the happenings of those you live with and love which will become more precious as the years roll by — and helpful as family histories are written later on. Writing in a family journal provides a unity and closeness which can be remarkable! In addition, Trina lists these benefits:

• A place for young writers to showcase their progress
• Young children can be encouraged in the skill of narration as older family members take dictation
• Best of all, the Family Journal provides a unique way to honor a family member on their birthday. The Librarian or Scribe of the family can spend some time prior to a birthday looking back and bookmarking passages that record personal development, funny quotes…which can be read aloud at the birthday dinner or over dessert, and the whole family can laugh and celebrate that member of the family

Ashley Faucet also writes in The Seedling Blog about the positive results of keeping a family journal:

Get the whole family together and read through each other’s stories at the end of the year. Relive your achievements, recount adventures, giggle at the silly musings made by the kids. Spending this kind of quality time together will strengthen your family’s bond and connection. At a glance you can collectively see where you’ve been, what you’ve accomplished and overcome, and decide together where you want to go next.

We would love to hear about your family journal (comment below).