Creating Our Preschool Journals

Preschool is a great opportunity to collect memories and focus on “unschooling” techniques. I love having the kids learn about nature by gardening with me or learn about math because we solved a snack problem. I also love to write down all their funny thoughts and quotes. I have journals I keep for the kids where I record the funny things they say or small memories I have about them that I’m sure I will forget with time. I also started PreK journals where they can draw, write, practice school lessons and answer questions to random questions.

This has been one of my favorite preschool projects. Watching the kids’ abilities change has been really fun. In the journals they are only allowed to work with the medium I give them (usually colored pencils so they don’t bleed through) and they have to stay on the page I give them. This is a school assignment, not a free-for-all.

Usually I let them draw whatever they want for the day, but sometimes I require they trace certain letters first or draw something specific (like a self-portrait on the first day of school). Here is a comparison of Kniya’s first day of preschool in 2016 (age 3) and her first day of preschool in 2017 (age 4):

You can see how much has changed. She knows more letters, has better pen control and has a better understanding for drawing people. She even knows how to write her name this year already. Here is Kaleb’s first preschool entry as a 3-year-old (notice how much it looks like Kniya’s first entry):

We don’t do the journals every day and I always write the date in them so I can look back and know exactly when something was drawn or answered a certain way. It’s really amazing how fast you forget how they say things or how they used to write/draw/think. As they get older, I plan to have school journals remain a part of their regular work.