My First Journal

I was only introduced to journaling  in my late twenties during a spiritual retreat I enrolled myself in back then. We were asked to write down our thoughts during reflection every morning. That experience turns out to be one of the best seasons I had. I remembered having a small booklet where ever I go and writing down my daily thoughts when ever I’m inspired. I realized that this practice actually helps clarify my thoughts and sorts out my emotions so much better. Reading back on my entries also helps to confirm decisions and paths that I take in life. I wished someone had introduced journaling to me earlier.

Well, this post is not really about my journaling journey, but it’s about Nat’s adventure. I’ve never envision  how a child as young as Nat could appreciate or even start their own journal. Not until I saw a blog posted sometime last year by mommy and her teaching journey with her daughter. She brought her daughter on an excursion to the River Safari and actually made a simple journal for her child to note down (mostly drawings) things that she saw during the trip. My first thought was “Wow this is so cool! I must do it with Nat one of these days!”.

And so we finally did!

This week’s Theme: Our Community

This week I’m bringing Nat on our own little excursion around our neighborhood. Objective is to introduce the different communities around where we stay. To let her understand a little more about her little world she is living in. Also a good start in introducing her first journal. Yeh!

As usual, I’ll introduced to her new vocab of the different places we will be visiting. Printed small thumbnail images of what she has been introduced to be pasted on her first journal!

Cutting exercise put to good use

Pasting and preparing her journal.

Journal complete and we are ready to set off. I simply love the way she responded before we set off…

Papa: Nat are you ready for our excursion!

Nat: Yes!!

Papa: Are you feeling excited!!

Nat: Yes!!! (With both hands raised and jumping all over the house) …priceless…

Doesn’t she look like an explorer or something?

Our first stop…Public Bus Stop

Next stop…Neighborhood Police Post. I was surprised she could recognize it from a distance when I ask her where it was. Sometimes they really surprise you.

Hair Salon

Nat was so excited when we reach the Supermarket…

Our last stop was to the Regional Library. I hope in time to come, she will appreciate more of this place in her community..

Its so wonderful to capture this shot of mother and daughter reading side by side..

The next day, we did our usual follow up. I printed out places we visited and asked Nat to identify and have them pasted on the correct pages

We did sketches of things we saw at our place of visit and pasting images we took at the different locations.

Over all it was an interesting adventure for both of us. It would be wonderful if Nat could continue with such journaling in time to come,  and to be able to travel around the world and discover the world around her and capturing them in her own imaginative and creative ways. The more she see and experience, the more she will be excited about life and learning…hopefully..