To Parents and Leaders: How to Use these Journals with Your Youth

TO PARENTS:

If you have a mutual-age child and you have bought this journal for them… let me give you some tips on how you can help your child be super successful with their new journal adventure.

First, the first 25 pages of the journal are filled with separate activities, questions, and challenges that is designed to help them really dive into and understand the new 2012 mutual theme, “Arise and Shine Forth”.  Here are some idea of how you can encourage them to fill out those pages:

  1. Encourage them to fill out one page per day (one page can be more effective than all the pages all at once, having the theme on their mind for 20 days can give them a lot of time to let it sink in and be taught).  Ask them to share what they have learned that day at family prayer or morning family scripture study.
  2. If you look at the pages yourself, they could provide a really good outline for some Family Home Evenings.  You could then fill it out as a family, or have your teenager actually give a series of Family Home Evening lessons.
  3. Ask your teenager to give a family home evening lesson on the theme by a certain date.  Tell them all they need to do is share some of their favorite things they have learned from their journal experience.  What a great example this could be for their younger siblings!  To see their older brother and sister teaching about the mutual theme chosen by their General Young Men and Young Women Leaders!
  4. After this is complete, make or put something up in your home to remind your entire family of the theme.  Remember that Little Miss Missy has some really good options for you to choose from.

Next, behind those first 25 pages are blank pages.  Here are some ideas of how  you can encourage your child to use them:

  1. I will be providing (tomorrow) a set of free downloadable stickers of all of the YW lessons for next year (you just need to print them out on an 8 1/2 x 11 label sheet and then cut them out).  So, if you are buying this for your young woman, then the journal could be a way for her to take notes each week in Young Women’s.
  2. I will also be providing 2 sets of TOPICS stickers.  Topics that they may want to study more about in their life.  They can cut out the topics they want and put one at the top of each page.  Then as they study and learn about those topics (in personal scripture study, church, family home evening, General Conference, and seminary) they can jot down what they have learned on the appropriate page.  So if they have a page on “Faith”, and in General Conference someone gives a really good quote about it, your child can then go to the page in their journal where they put their “FAITH” sticker and write down that quote.  The 2 sets of stickers will be:  one set geared towards Young Women (all of the YW values, some basic doctrines, and the standards in the For the Strength of Youth); the second set will be geared towards Young Men (topics from Preach My Gospel and the standards in the For the Strength of Youth).
  3. They could simply use those blank pages to record times they “Arose and Shined Forth” at school, at home, at church, at work or with their friends.
*If you have any more ideas, please leave them in the comments section below
TO LEADERS:
If you have bought these for your Young Men or Young Women classes, here are some helpful tips for you (an more will be coming):
Young Women Leaders:
Ideas on how to use the first 25 pages about the Mutual Theme:
  1. This journal is designed to really help the youth understand the theme for themselves.  Rather than having their leaders tell them what the theme is, the goal is to have the youth be able to tell YOU what the theme is and how it applies to them individually.
  2. I would consider presenting this book at the beginning of the year, the same day you present the DVD sent to you from the General Presidencies.  I would fill out the first 2 pages with the youth and then encourage them to do one page a day until they are finished.  Depending on when your New Beginnings program is, the young women will likely be finished by then and they could share with the incoming young women what the theme is, simply by sharing what is written in their journals.
  3. You could have an incentive by finishing the first part of the journal by a certain date.  It could be something they receive with the theme on it (check out Little Miss Missy products for some great options), or you could have a pizza night or something fun like that.
  4. To keep the girls on track, you could ask one or two girls to share in opening exercises some things they had learned about the theme that week.
  5. Don’t tell the girls this…. but you could suggest to your Bishop that after the girls have finished their journals, they will each be very capable of speaking in Sacrament meeting and sharing with the entire ward how special the them is this year and what it means to them.
Ideas on how to use the blank pages in the back:
  1. If you are buying these to use in class throughout the year, I will be providing (tomorrow) a set of free downloadable stickers of all of the YW lessons for next year (you just need to print them out on an 8 1/2 x 11 label sheet and have the YW cut them out and place them at the top of each blank page – which would make a super easy activity).
  2. As a seminary teacher, I am pretty journal focused in my classes.  I have found that when a student misses a class, they will ask me “what did I miss in my journal?” rather than just show up to class without considering what lesson they hadn’t gotten.  Having a page for each lesson, will not only provide a place for the youth to record what they are learning, but can help get them excited for upcoming lessons, as well as be far more likely to remember things from the lessons that the leaders work so hard preparing each week.
  3. The success of the journals will depend a lot on the leaders.  Each month on my site, I will be providing a list of ideas on how the journal can be used with the lessons that month.  There are a variety of ways to use them in your lessons that will enhance learning, and I will be continually sharing those with you.
  4. With that said, I highly recommend each leader also have their own journal.  If you fill out your lesson’s journal page prior to the lesson you will find that you will be able to instruct the young women so much more effectively than if you hadn’t done it yourself.  PLUS, if they can see what yours looks like, then they will be much more motivated to do the same in their’s.  (TRUST me!  I have learned this in my seminary class – they do what you do!)
  5. I will also be providing a set of TOPIC stickers that you may choose to use rather than the LESSON stickers.  Topics that they may want to study more about in their life.  They can cut out the topics they want and put one at the top of each page.  Then as they study and learn about those topics (in personal scripture study, church, family home evening, General Conference, and seminary) they can jot down what they have learned on the appropriate page.  So if they have a page on “Faith”, and in General Conference someone gives a really good quote about it, the young women can then go to the page in their journal where they put their “FAITH” sticker and write down that quote.  The stickers will include all of the YW values, some basic doctrines, and the standards in the For the Strength of Youth.  So you may or may not use these in class, but you will be providing them with a study tool to use.
*  These journals could truly be Young Women in Excellence in making all year long.  After each girl has spent so much time with their journals, you could easily ask them each girl to speak for 3 or 4 minutes that night, and share things about the mutual theme as well as some of their favorite lessons from that year and how it impacted their lives.  The focus of the night would truly be on them and what they are doing to become EXCELLENT young women!

Young Men Leaders:

Ideas on how to use the first 25 pages:

  1. This journal is designed to really help the youth understand the theme for themselves.  Rather than having their leaders tell them what the theme is, the goal is to have the youth be able to tell YOU what the theme is and how it applies to them individually.
  2. I would consider presenting this book at the beginning of the year, the same day you present the DVD sent to you from the General Presidencies.  I would fill out the first 2 pages with the youth and then encourage them to do one page a day until they are finished.
  3. You could have an incentive by finishing the first part of the journal by a certain date.  It could be something they receive with the theme on it (check out Little Miss Missy products for some great options), or you could have a pizza night or something fun like that.
  4. To keep the boys on track, you could ask one or two of them to share in class some things they had learned about the theme that week.
  5. Don’t tell the boys this…. but you could suggest to your Bishop that after they have finished their journals, they will each be very capable of speaking in Sacrament meeting and sharing with the entire ward how special the them is this year and what it means to them.
Ideas on how to use the blank pages in the back:
  1. If you are buying these to use in class throughout the year, at the beginning of each lesson,  tell the boys the lesson title and have them write it at the top of the next available page.
  2. As a seminary teacher, I am pretty journal focused in my classes.  I have found that when a student misses a class, they will ask me “what did I miss in my journal?” rather than just show up to class without considering what lesson they hadn’t gotten.  Having a page for each lesson, will not only provide a place for the youth to record what they are learning, but can help get them excited for upcoming lessons, as well as be far more likely to remember things from the lessons that the leaders work so hard preparing each week.
  3. The success of the journals will depend a lot on the leaders.  Every handout should now be sized to fit into their journals.  Have a glue stick or tape handy and have the boys put them directly into their journals, filed neatly into the spot where it belongs.  Also, instead of bringing in a stack of papers from the library for the boys to write down thoughts or impressions, now they have a journal to write them down in.
  4. With that said, I highly recommend each leader also have their own journal.  If you fill out your lesson’s journal page prior to the lesson you will find that you will be able to instruct the young men so much more effectively than if you hadn’t done it yourself.  PLUS, if they can see what yours looks like, then they will be much more motivated to do the same in their’s.  (TRUST me!  I have learned this in my seminary class – they do what you do!)
  5. Another option for using the pages is this:  I will be providing a set of TOPIC stickers on my site.  They will be free and all you have to do is print them onto an 8 1/2 x 11 label paper and have the boys cut them out and put them at the top of each page.     Then as they study and learn about those topics (in personal scripture study, church, family home evening, General Conference, and seminary) they can jot down what they have learned on the appropriate page.  So if they have a page on “Faith”, and in General Conference someone gives a really good quote about it, the young men can then go to the page in their journal where they put their “FAITH” sticker and write down that quote.  The stickers will include all of the topics from Preach My Gospel, and the standards in the For the Strength of Youth.  So you may or may not use these in class, but you will be providing them with a study tool to use.

7 comments

  1. The boy journals would be great for their Duty to God as the new format requires a lot of journaling/writing. My 18 year old son just used a notebook that was about the same size as his book but these would be really good. Just an idea!

  2. I love this idea!! Is there anyway that you could share more of the pages or have a version where we could take the ideas and make our own Study Journals? I am Young Women’s President in our Ward but our budget could not handle being able to purchase one of these for each of my young women. Could you please share some of these study aids in a way that we can use?? Maybe similar to the pamphlet study aid you put together for the 13 article of faith last year?
    I am excited to add some special pages in our study notebooks to include an in depth study for the revised FTSOY pamphlets. Might you be doing something like that in the future?
    Thanks for all you do and share. Our whole young women’s organization has benefited from the insights and ideas you have shared. Thanks for being such a wonderful resource. Thanks!!

    Also Thanks for the YW Lesson headers – That will be so helpful in our notebooks this year!!

  3. Do you know when you will have the Young Men stickers ready? My son is just learning about scripture journaling and really would like stickers to go with his journaling! Thanks.

  4. Please take your Time on the Topics!
    Take Care and relax once you have a baby You won’t have much time. You will be spending Much time caring for your daughter of God. Congrats!

    Jenny

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