Guest Author - Melissa Waters

We all hate to see summer end, but one sign of it coming to a close is back to school. Now is a time to gather all those stories from another summer in one place, where? Our journals of course.

Here are some prompts to start your back to school journaling:

Well, it’s that time of year again, back to school! It’s a perfect time to start journaling or continue your journaling experience. I thought I would share some of the journaling prompts that are popular in my household.

1. What did you do on your summer vacation? Ok, I know everyone has heard this one before. Some teachers even make you write an essay the first day of school about it, so why not have some fun with it. You can use your actual summer vacation to write about or you can add some zing to your journal with what you really wanted to do on your summer vacation. Put your wildest dreams and heart desire into it and create the ideal, perfect summer vacation that will make all your friends envious.

2. What would be your ideal school experience for this year? What grade are you entering into this year? How can you make this year a special journal year? What about starting up a journaling club with your friends or schoolmates? How about including your favorite teacher into your journaling journey? Use your imagination on how this year could be your greatest year yet and don’t forget to share everything with your journal. You’ll have fun years later when you can look back and reflect about the most memorable years of your life in the pages of your own journal. You can also share these memories with your own family.

3. What is your favorite subject in school? Why is this your favorite subject? Are you a good student in this class? Who is your teacher this year? Have you had this teacher before? What can you do to include your journal in your favorite subject in school? You might try incorporating some of your assignments into your journal. Especially, the ones that get those A’s. Make copies of those perfect assignments and paste them into your journals. Write about how you accomplished the assignment, the books you read, the research and all the hard work you put into the assignment.

4. What is your hardest subject in school? Why does this subject give you the most trouble? What can you do to make this subject more manageable? Share your fears, dreams and plans you have for tackling this class this year. You might also consider using your journal as some sort of time management tool for this class. Use it to monitor the time you spend mastering this subject and than reflect upon it to make sure you are giving it the attention it needs to be one of you favorite classes.

Now let’s have some fun! Why not buy a new journal or create a new one especially for this year of school. You might consider buying a new pen or pencil to include with this special journal. Or try a new computer journaling program.