If your home is like ours then homework (or really any activity deemed educational) is either a battle to get completed, placed on the back burner or ignored. When we created J.O.Y. Journal we wanted to help kids explore and build upon important values such as self-love, resilience, confidence in owning who they are.  These are some tough values to teach but, like anything else in life, we wanted the child to learn through experience and thoughtful reflection.   Our main goal was to allow the child to discover who they are and what is great about them by interacting with guided questions while enjoying the fun and creative aspect of a journal. We didn’t want the journal to feel like homework.

The great news for you as a parent is that J.O.Y. Journal aligns with national educational standards so using the journal means your child is learning necessary skills while having fun. The chart below outlines how the J.O.Y. Journal aligns with Common Core and State...

Through the eyes of a child, the world is full of possibilities. You can be a pirate, sailing to undiscovered worlds. You can be a doctor, caring for your stuffed bunny with only one good eye. You can be a master builder creating spaceships, forts, and whole cities all with the click of a block.

We need creativity and imaginative thinking present in our children’s lives because it builds creative and divergent thinking skills, develops physical dexterity, and teaches comprise and negotiation tactics.  CNN.com published an article discussing with educational psychologist Kyung Hee Kim creativity scores in 300,000 American K-12 students saying, “Creativity scores have significantly decreased since 1990. […] Creativity scores for kindergarten through third-graders decreased the most and those from the fourth through sixth grade decreased by the next largest amount”.

In addition to free-play and exploring the outdoors, you and your child can expand your...