My Kid’s Reading Journal, Or How I’m Channeling My Dad and Bribing My Kid to Read More

I have a love/hate relationship with reading journals for kids.

As a kid, I hated them. For the most part. My dad made it extra homework for us because he’s one of those immigrant parents who thought American schools didn’t assign enough work. He made us keep a daily journal: 5 sentences to describe our day, and 5 sentences to summarize at least one thing we read that day. He’d check every now and then, and if we kept it up for a whole year, we’d get a bonus toy at Christmas time. My siblings and I often forgot to keep up with our journals (because, duh, we were kids and busy being kids), so right around December 20, you would find all three of us comparing notes and scribbling furiously to catch up on missed entries. That bonus toy tasted so sweet.

As an adult and former teacher, I love that we did that. The daily writing practice shaped me into a strong writer, and I use daily micro-journal entries in my classroom to help my students. My dad didn’t really need to bribe me to read; I was already an avid reader. But what he did do is challenge me to branch into different genres. I have never been a huge fan of nonfiction (I much rather prefer fantasy), but my dad thought it was important, so I read all I could about animals and ancient civilizations. I read some news stories, but just the ones that would appeal to an elementary student.

As a parent, I wanted to pass on some of this to my kid. My daughter’s much like me as a kid: she loves any book that she can escape into. I don’t need to push her to read, but I do want to give her mini challenges and have a chance to talk with her about what she’s reading.

I wanted to put my own spin to my dad’s reading journal idea.

Here are my goals with my kid’s reading journal:

• Give her a place where she can keep track of all the amazing stories she’s read. I remember wishing I had kept a list when I was a kid, and I want to give her this.
• Open up space for us to talk about her books. I’m taking this from my classroom practices. I loved having reading conferences with my students. It’s such a great way to get to know them and what they like. When I flip through Jaya’s reading journal entries, I ask her about each book and what she thought about them. I love giving her space to share things that she’s into, and I love learning about who she is at this point in time.
• Make reading a habit. My kid is motivated by toy money, meaning real money that she can spend on toys at Target. Yes, yes, I know extrinsic motivation isn’t good. She’s got plenty of intrinsic motivation to read. I just want an extra push on the days when she’d rather melt her brain on Netflix for a whole morning. So reading for 15 minutes each day is a qurter. Every completed book is $1. The kid is becoming a reading fiend!
• Challenge her to read outside her comfort zone. I’m fine with my kid reading whatever she wants. As an English teacher, though, I always have that secret desire to see kids read and enjoy classics, award winners, and any other books that will make them think and grow as people. My kid’s really into the kid version of “cozy fantasy”–mostly about mermaids and unicorns making friends. I get it. I’m like that too. But I want her to try stories with a bit more conflict, or nonfiction books about nature or history, or classics like Charlotte’s Web or Matilda. Included in her reading log are challenge genres that she can choose from, as well as a list of ideas for classic children’s novels. Every challenge book that she reads is an extra $1.
• Build some writing and reflection skills. I have spots in the journal for her to write what she liked about a book, or draw an image that she liked from her reading. I don’t want to put too much pressure on her yet, so this is just to start developing writing as a habit.
• Do NOT stress her out. I want this log to just be a place to keep track of her books and accomplishments. I do not want to go into teacher mode and discipline her for not finishing something like a good student. So many of her entries so far are hastily done or reviews that say, “I liked the Purrmaids. They were cute.” As a teacher, I wouldn’t accept such lame answers, but as her parent… she’s in first grade. I’m just happy that she’s playing along with it.

I really want this journal to be as low pressure as possible. So far, it seems to be going well! It’s been fun talking to her about her books as well as channeling my playful teacher side when I laugh about something she wrote.

If you’re a nerdy mom like me, or if you’re an elementary school teacher looking for something light for your kids, here’s the full pdf of her reading log! It includes a link at the end to an editable Canva template for your personal use! IT’S ALL FREE! Enjoy!

Let me know how it goes or if you have ideas for improving it!