Reading Journals are now available online through Rainbow Resource Center! Click here to see all of the available options.
These large 8.5″ x 11″ softcover reading journals have space to record a total of 100 books.
The interior contents include:
Total of 124 pages
A page to write the name of the journal owner
Personalized Table of Contents – journal owner writes the title of each book on the line next to its number to easily refer back to specific books
Letter to the reader explaining each section, what the different numbers of stars mean for rating books, the difference between fiction and nonfiction books with examples, and some ideas to include in the section to write additional thoughts and comments
100 pages to record 100 different books with space to:
write the book title, author, and number of pages
color in stars for a personalized book rating
fill in a circle next to the word fiction or nonfiction
write the date started and date ended
write any additional thoughts or comments about the book (with your choice of thin ruled lines or wide ruled lines)
Pages to record new words and definitions
Pages to write the titles of books to read in the future
Check out this post to see pictures of the interior.
(This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you if you click on a link and make a purcahse. Thank you!)
I have really enjoyed creating and publishing journals over the past year. I made reading journals for my daughters to record the books they’ve read, a field trip journal to record field trips we attend, a sermon notes journal to take notes during our Sunday morning sermons, a high school journal for my daughters to record daily snippets of their high school journey, and a baby journal for moms to record the first few years of their baby’s life.
So, it really wasn’t much of a surprise when my 13-year-old daughter came to me and said she had an idea for another journal we should create.
She explained to me how she wanted a journal similar to Rip It! Write It! Draw It! but specifically for Christian kids. She had plans of what she would do on each page and some Bible verses she could include. I absolutely loved her idea and told her she should create it!
My daughter had all the ideas, but she didn’t know how she would create the pictures and format the journal. That part sounded perfect for my 12-year-old daughter (her sister) who had just finished illustrating the book Aah! Blown Away, Crash! An Alphabet Misadventure.
Learn more about Aah! Blown Away, Crash! An Alphabet Misadventurehere.
I figured having the two of them work together on this journal would be a great use of the extra time they had since most of their activities had been cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 quarantine.
They spent quite a bit of time planning exactly how they wanted each page to look and stored all of their ideas in a binder.
My 12-year-old daughter used Affinity Designer and Canva to turn all of their ideas on paper into reality. Let me just say, I am amazed by what my daughters were able to accomplish! I really hope they continue to use the gifts God has given them.
They found some images on Pixabay to use in the journal, but all of the images shown in these pictures were created by my 12-year-old daughter.
This is the first activity they created for the journal.
And here is another activity.
And another one.
Sorry, my website address won’t show up entirely on all of the pictures for some reason and my pictures aren’t the clearest. But other than that, aren’t they amazing?
My daughters created over 75 activities for the journal.
Each activity has at least one Bible reference that relates to that activity listed.
Just two more pictures of the inside activities. (I can’t show all of their pages!)
Then, they ordered some copies to keep, hand out, and sell. Their box of copies arrived last Friday.
Of course, I bought a few copies, too. I’m waiting for them to sign my copy.
Write, Draw, Believe is now available on Amazon here.
I’ll close with the words they included on their dedication page:
“To all truth seekers- May you find the one and only Truth!”
“This journal is dedicated to every Christian obedient enough to follow God with their entire heart. May God give you the strength to follow His calling.”
(This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you if you click on a link and make a purchase. Thank you!)
Earlier this year, my daughters and I were sorting through some things in our basement when one of my daughters found this little notecard bin.
It may not look like much from the outside – just a plain, clear bin to hold notecards. But the inside is full of memories from years ago.
I had purchased the bin and labeled 365 notecards (one for each day of the year) at the beginning of 2015. Each night, I wrote the year and a short sentence or two about something my family had done that day. Then, I placed that notecard in the back, so the next day’s notecard was in the front.
I continued this for over a year and enjoyed reading what we had done on the same date the year before. For some reason, I stopped writing our daily entries, and the bin ended up forgotten in a box in our basement until my daughter found it.
Now, the little bin sits on her dresser. My daughter has been recording a daily entry in it ever since she discovered it.
It’s interesting to hear what we had done together four or five years ago on the same date. A lot has changed since then!
That little bin gave me the idea of creating a multi-year journal. That’s how the baby journal I created earlier this year was born!
I had a couple of expecting moms I knew in mind as I put the baby journal together. But my daughters are past the baby stage, so I created another multi-year journal with my daughters in mind.
I received the proof of the high school journal last week. The cover is gorgeous!
Of course, the actual journal will not say “Not For Resale” across it. That’s just what the proof says.
Journal owners can spend just a few minutes each day (or night before bed) to write a couple of sentences documenting memories, places visited, activities, current events, or whatever else is on their mind. If they miss a day, they can simply continue on whatever date it is. Great for the busy high schooler!
Each page is divided into four journal entries, one for each year that occurs on that page’s indicated date (except for February 29th, which only has one journal entry for Leap Year).
Journal owners can see their thoughts and activities from the previous years on the same dates. This is a great way to see how much remains the same and how much changes throughout 9th grade (freshman year), 10th grade (sophomore year), 11th grade (junior year), and 12th grade (senior year).
The journal is softcover and measures 7″ x 10″. The first entry begins on July 15th, so journal owners can record their thoughts as they prepare to start high school.
Additional pages in the back of the journal provide space to record:
favorites
compare and contrast favorite food, song, movie, TV show, color, book, class, teacher, sport, hobby, restaurant, store, and two other options over the years in a simple chart
sports and clubs
classes
goals
fill-in-the blank space for the writing prompt “After high school, I want to…”
special memories
anything else
pictures
I ordered two journals for my daughters. Unfortunately, I’m a year late for one, but she still plans to fill out the pages for her remaining high school years. I can’t believe I will have two high schoolers this year!
You can click here to order a high school journal today if you would like one. (All of my journals can be viewed in one spot here.)
Look what arrived this past Friday. Not one, but two proofs!
Just in case you don’t know, a proof is a version of a book (or journal) that can be previewed before publication. The proofs I received state “Not for Resale” on the covers, but the interiors are all the exact same as what the published versions will be as long as they are approved.
My 12-year-old daughter did all of the illustrations for Aah! Blown Away, Crash!, and I enjoyed seeing her reaction as she looked through the proof and saw all of her own illustrations in print.
We scrutinized each of the pages to determine if any changes needed to be made. In the end, we decided to update a total of eleven of the pages.
The colors we see on the computer screen appear a little different in print. For example, the blue my daughter chose for the water appears as a vibrant blue on our computer screen. In print, though, it appears much darker.
We were concerned the blue would be too dark to read the text on the page. So, we decided to adjust the color, which meant my daughter had to adjust the color of the water on multiple pages.
She also had to update the back of the cover with the new color.
We found a few other details that also needed to be fixed. For example, on one of the pages, part of the text was “stuck behind a cloud”.
It amazed me how fast my daughter was able to fix each of the pages on her computer program. Once all of the changes had been made, I reuploaded all of the files and ordered a new proof.
The updated proof should arrive within the next couple of weeks. We had chosen to create a softcover version first, but we will also be creating a hardcover version of Aah! Blown Away, Crash! once we ensure the interior files for the softcover version are accurate.
Our goal is to have the hardcover and softcover version of Aah! Blown Away, Crash!: An Alphabet Misadventure published in the beginning of June. Stay tuned for more details!
The other proof that arrived is a journal called Baby’s First Years: A Three Year Journal.I love the way the front cover turned out, which was designed by my daughter using an image by Mylene2401 from Pixabay.
It is a journal for new parents to record short daily passages for their baby’s first three years. Each page is divided into three journal entries, one for each year that occurs on that page’s indicated date.
Instead of copying and pasting the exact same pages throughout the entire journal, I decided to include different pictures for each of the months.
I tried to keep the pictures relevant to the time of the year and age of the child.
The back of the journal includes two pages to record special days and an additional two pages to record any extra notes.
I’m hoping this journal will help parents to not stress over filling an entire baby book with nitty-gritty details. Instead, parents can spend just a few minutes each day of the year to write a couple of sentences (or notes) documenting milestones, places visited, family activities, current events, or whatever else may be on their mind. If they miss a day, it’s okay to continue on whatever date it is, which I think is great for the sleep-deprived new parent.
I noticed there is hyphen missing on the spine, but it will be updated soon.
The journal is a total of 375 pages long and will be available as a 6” x 9” softcover version in the very near future!
I intend to give this journal as a gift to two expecting moms I know. (Hopefully it will be available before their new bundles of joy are here…I’m cutting it really close on time with one!)
I have really enjoyed creating and publishing journals for various reasons. I published reading journals for my daughters to record all of the books they read, adventure writing prompt journals for some writing fun with my daughters, and field trip journals to record all of our field trip adventures.
Below is a picture I took last month. One of my daughters was filling out her field trip journal for the field trip we took at an airport while my other daughter was filling out her reading journal for the latest Who Was book we had read together. (You can see the list of Who Was series books we have read together so far on my Pinterest board here if you are interested.)
Now, I am in the process of publishing a sermon notes journal. I received the proof yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, a proof is the physical copy of the journal (or book) I receive to review before publication. The proof says “Not for Resale” across the front cover, but the actual copies will not have that banner.
Below is a picture of the cover of the sermon notes journal proof. I chose to use a matte finish on the cover, which I think turned out well. All of my other books and journals have had a glossy finish, but I think the matte finish suits this journal better.
This easy-to-carry 5.5″ x 8.5″ softcover sermon notes journal allows the journal owner to record and reflect on sermon notes, prayer requests, upcoming church events, and more. The journal is about 1/2 inch thick and should be small enough to fit inside a Bible case.
I considered publishing the journal as a spiral-bound journal instead of a softcover journal because I thought that would make writing in them even easier during a sermon. Unfortunately, I had some issues with this idea including the fact the cost would be substantially higher.
There is a page for the journal owner to write his or her name. I also included a customizable table of contents. (Journal owners can write the name of the sermon title and/or date of the sermon on the line next to the appropriate sermon number in the table of contents for easy reference.)
I have space for 52 sermons which is enough to write one for each week of the year. I considered doing a few extras for additional sermons around the holidays but decided to stick with 52.
Each of the 52 weeks has the same repeating four pages.
The first page of each week provides space to write the date, speaker, scripture reading, sermon title, upcoming church events, and prayer requests/praise. (The text in the journal appears much clearer than it does in these pictures. Sorry about that.)
The second and third pages of each week provide space for the actual sermon notes and reference verses.
The fourth page of each week has space to write personal application/thoughts from the sermon and further study/read for next week.
The end of the sermon notes journal includes “a call to action”.
I also included a page for all of the image credits for the images I used throughout the sermon notes journal.
There are a few things I would like to update in the sermon notes journal before officially publishing it. My goal is to have it published and available on Amazon by the end of March 2020.
I’ve got some more ideas for other journals, which I hope to create and publish yet this year. I’m also still working on Aah! Blown Away, Crash! with my daughter, the first draft of an adult nonfiction book all about self-publishing basics, and a secret project.
I hope to share information about the secret project with you before the end of this month. Stay tuned! (You are welcome to join my email list to receive a monthly e-newsletter to stay current with all of the fun extras, journals, books, and writing projects.)
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Brigitte Brulz 