7 Tips For Starting A Family Lockdown Diary

Ellie Sylvester
Dec 12, 2023 By Ellie Sylvester
Originally Published on Apr 14, 2020
diary a brilliant way to express your thoughts
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Age: 0-99
Read time: 7.0 Min

Given that this Easter holiday is a little different to what we expected, a great way to encourage little ones to make the most of it is to start a family lockdown diary! Build memories on paper (or digitally) that you can look back on and remember what crazy times we’re currently living in. Not only is creating a diary a brilliant way to express your thoughts, feelings and memories, but it’s also an opportunity for the whole family to get super creative and spend quality time together. There are endless benefits to creating a diary; whether it be easing any stress or helping put the situation into perspective, having a creative outlet such as a diary is invaluable during these times. Plus, not all diaries have to be your standard, written diary - check out our list of ideas down below to get some serious journaling inspo!

Create A Time Capsule

You’ll need: a shoebox, newspaper clippings, pens, paper, pictures, mementoes and your imagination!

Not your traditional lockdown diary but what better way to capture these out of the ordinary holidays than in a box? Given that we’re currently going through something that hopefully will never occur again, why not create a time capsule of your period in lockdown that your kids can look back on? Grab an old shoebox and cram it full of different mementoes, pictures, drawings - the possibilities are endless! Try writing a future letter to yourself describing the current situation in lockdown, drawing around your hands, painting portraits of members of your family to look back on or even cutting out newspaper clippings to reflect on in the future. Make sure to date everything and then you’re good to hide it somewhere in the garden and come back at a later date to step back in time! If you need some more inspiration check out Kidadl’s time capsule checklist here

Lockdown Time Capsule

You Can’t Beat Writing In A Good, Old-Fashioned Diary

You’ll need: a diary or notepad and pens

Nothing beats putting pen to paper and keeping a physical diary epitomises this. Whether you choose to write daily entries, letting your little ones take it in turns to express their feelings and write up the day or weekly entries, summarising the best bits about everyone’s week, keeping a paper diary is a fantastic way to keep track and reflect on what’s going on - plus, in years to come you’ll be able to hold something physical and reminisce when this is all over! You might want to write down some goals in your diary, make a list of the things you want to do when lockdown is over, do some creative writing or even write letters to yourself. Make sure to date each page and set the scene for yourself - that way, it’ll be all the more memorable when you go to read it in years to come.

Children writing

Get Creative And Get Scrapbooking!

You’ll need: an empty notepad or paper, pens, glue and anything else you want to stick in your scrapbook!

Now’s your chance to get super creative in lockdown! Plus, setting time aside daily to work on your scrapbook is a great opportunity for both kids and grown-ups to collect their thoughts, reflect and create! You can fill your scrapbook with anything you want - from shopping receipts and pressed flowers to drawings of things that you may have spotted whilst going for a walk, such as trees or animals. Perhaps, you want to write out your daily routine whilst in lockdown or your thoughts and feelings - writing things down really helps to alleviate any feelings of unease so not only is it a great way to fill your scrapbook but it’s also proven to be beneficial for mental wellbeing! Plus, you’ll need somewhere to store all of your Easter holiday crafts and what better place than a scrapbook? If you’re in need of some super easy craft ideas, especially for little ones, take a look at our blog here.

Start A Lockdown Vlog Diary

You’ll need: a camera

If you’re not familiar with the term ‘vlog’ don’t worry, neither were we! It basically means video-blog, essentially a video of anything you want to capture on camera. Given that we now live in the wonderful age of technology, pretty much everyone has a smartphone with an in-built camera or just a simple hand-held camera, so it means that vlogging has become more popular than ever - and it’s easy to see why! It’s all about capturing life’s moments - the good and the not so great - and it’s a brilliant way to reflect on your life visually. So grab your camera and start filming bits of your life in lockdown; whether it be your daily routine, interviews with your family or even what you eat for dinner every day - it might not seem interesting now but it’s bound to be fun to look back on! Plus, you could even share your vlogs with your loved ones, including family and friends who don’t live with you so they can see what you and your family are getting up to!

Child with play camera

Create Your Own Online Blog Lockdown Diary

You’ll need: a computer or smartphone

With everything going online, why not take your lockdown diary online as well - this way you can add pictures, videos and it’s super easy to share with your loved ones. If you would like to create a more public online diary, there are plenty of free blog websites such as Wordpress and Squarespace that are super easy to navigate and work your way around. Alternatively, writing in a Word document or GoogleDoc is another option if you’d like to keep your writing private - it is a diary after all! You might choose to write an entry daily or weekly and it can really be about whatever you want; you might want to write about your routine in lockdown or you might want to treat it as a space to do some creative writing - be it poetry, short stories or even songs! Creative writing is also proven to have heaps of benefits - it encourages imagination and creativity whilst stimulating the brain in a unique and fun way.

Parent and child on computer

Keep A Food/Movie/Book Diary

You’ll need: paper or a notepad and a pen

Keeping a diary isn’t all about writing down your thoughts and feelings, it can also be a platform to write about your favourite books that you’ve read, your favourite movies and even your favourite meals during lockdown! Perhaps you or your kids weren’t big fans of books before but lockdown has encouraged you to get stuck into some serious reading - why not write a book review? Or maybe you’ve watched some really good movies - why not conduct your very own Oscars ceremony and write down all the best candidates? Or with limited food in the supermarkets at the moment, perhaps you're having different meals to usual - write these down and describe what you liked about them, that way you'll be able to recreate them once lockdown is over!

Child being creative

Start A Dream Diary

You’ll need: paper or a notepad and a pen

Keep a notepad by your bed and write down your dreams every morning as soon as you wake up. Give them a title and date the page and try to record as many details of the dream as possible - think about the colours you saw, the people that were in it and what actually happened. It can be fun to find symbols and imagery in the dreams and try to figure out what they might mean. You can even look at a dream dictionary online and analyse them that way. At the end of the month when you flip through your dream diary you might find certain symbols repeatedly pop up in particular patterns - maybe this means something! Even if you don't believe in the idea that dreams mean anything, it's still a fun way to get your imagination going.
 

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Written by Ellie Sylvester

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English

Ellie Sylvester picture

Ellie SylvesterBachelor of Arts specializing in English

As a passionate Londoner, Ellie enjoys exploring the city's theaters and food markets with her younger siblings. She has a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Nottingham. She's particularly fond of Primrose Hill and the Natural History Museum, as well as the constantly changing Spitalfields Market. In addition to her love of theater, Ellie also enjoys trying new foods and dabbling in musical theater.

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