Nana and Me Journals

Every once in awhile I discover a fun idea that works great for homeschooling, and then I think.. wait, wouldn’t NON-homeschoolers like this too? And then I thought about my Nanahood friends, and thought, yep..they need to hear about this idea. In our house they are called, “Mama and Me” journals, but for our crowd here they could be “Nana and Me”, or “Mema and Me”.. you get the picture.

What is a Nana Journal?

So, it’s really, really easy.. super affordable, and a wonderful memory in the making. It’s basically a journal that you AND your child or grandchild write in together. You’ll need a notebook and a pen or pencil (and maybe some coloring pencils or crayons, if you want to get creative). For my kids, I let them go find notebooks they loved at Walmart, and I found a special pen just for ME to use, because that’s how we roll. My daughter picked out a glitter PINK notebook, of course!

I started the journal with a writing prompt question, and let them have the journal back to answer and write whatever came to mind. There are NO RULES with the journal – except that both people need to write in it regularly. As the adult, I have ideas for questions if things get stalled out, but the beauty of writing back and forth is that there always seems to be something to say!

The first prompt I gave my kids was, “What makes you happy? Describe what makes you happy and WHY these things make you feel good”. Then once I read their responses, I replied with some thoughts about their journal and asked another question, and the journal “conversation” continued from there.

If you are a super crafty Nana, you could color pictures, OR draw pictures for your grandkids to color. Or you could buy fun stickers to add to the pages! I like to doodle in the margins to make the pages more interesting, and I think even my older kids look forward to seeing what I might write/draw.

The best part? Someday, this will be a TREASURE to your grandchildren, as they look back of the ideas and thoughts of their childhoods, and how you responded to those. Win, all the way around!