A Family Journal: The Survival of your Family’s Culture
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A few years ago, when life was anything but calm, I managed to keep a family journal. To this day it is one of the most frequently pulled items off of our scrapbooks and family albums shelf. What is a family journal, you may ask and why would I bring that up now? Let’s explore this fun way of creating a family culture that endures.
What is a family journal?
It is literally a journal that you keep as a family. It can contain text, drawings, ticket stubs, maps, pictures, anything you would like. It is not something to add to your plate but rather a family endeavor to preserve your common memory. I find it so hard to remember my oldest kiddos’ first years now that they are starting to fly the coop… I wish I had had the discipline and habit to write more things down. But this is a little different, it is a journal where anyone in the family can take a minute to jot a note, add a picture or drawing and simply leave a smiley face.
It serves to document anything memorable, or mundane, that has occurred today or this week or this month.
How do you keep a family journal?
Each family will find its own groove to keep their journal, but here are few ideas:
- Anyone, anytime can jot something down, leave a note, a drawing, a picture, a memento.
- At the end of the day, maybe at the end of dinner someone hands the journal to mom and everyone asks for a little note about their day to be added.
- At the end of the week, if you call a family meeting to preview the upcoming week, would be a great time to write a few things about the week that is ending.
- Or it could be at the end of the month.
- Or during a road trip, grab your family journal along and catch up.
- Maybe assign the role of journaler to a different person each week/month, or to a team of older/younger.
What do you put in a family journal?
That is where your family’s personality comes out!
- Of course enter your family’s day and memorable activities, but there are so many other things that your collective memory will thank you for having written them down.
- Capture your family’s favorite jokes, memories, or prayers.
- Write down favorite current recipes.
- Describe your birthday, Christmas, Easter traditions.
- Enter each book that you read aloud together and add your opinions on the book you have just finished.
- Do the same with favorite movies.
- Write favorite quotes from your daily life, movies, books.
- Create a family bucket list and keep it there, where you will come across it from time to time.
Truly the ideas are endless of what could go into a family journal.
What about the format?
What has worked well for us is a small binder with undated planner pages. Start now to gather anything you might need: adhesives, fun papers, picture insert pages, pens, etc… Create a basket to contain all of it. Place the basket in an easy to find place either in your kitchen or dining room. As you know we all love to junk journal so it will be interesting to see how this journal turns out. A simple notebook would work as well, it just all depends on what your family would enjoy.
At the end of the day nothing really matters except capturing the essence of your family’s culture. I am planning on launching our new family journal soon-ish, lol! In this new season it will be interesting to see how it turns out. It will be different from a few years ago, but maybe very similar at the same time. It is another family adventure and I can’t wait to launch it.
Your family culture is worth preserving, even if it’s a little more work 🙂
Love,
Mattie
