Birthday Journal- A Birthday Tradition For Your Kids
If you are looking for a perfect gift for a birthday, baby shower or just a way to capture sweet memories for your child this birthday journal is a great option! It is is one of the most simple and meaningful traditions you can start with your kids.
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When I was pregnant with my first son my aunt (who always has awesome ideas) recommended I start a birthday journal for him. The idea behind this is every birthday we set out a journal for loved ones to write in. They can write memories, sweet sentiments, silly stories or wishes for the upcoming year to the child. As the years go by your child will have pages and pages filled with great stories and precious notes from loved ones.
One of my favorite parts of doing this with my kids is they now have notes from their great grandpa that has since passed away. His notes to my boys are priceless and we wouldn’t have them if it weren’t for this birthday memory book.
When your child is older you can show them all of the sweet comments and memories over the years. The blank journal you start with turns into a beautiful treasure of birthday memories.
Materials
- Journal
- Printable cover & writing prompts (linked later in this post)
- Double sided tape
The total cost of this gift is less than 10$ making it incredibly budget friendly!
How To Create Your Birthday Journal
Purchase a journal– I like to make sure the quality of the book is good so it will last for years to come
Print off the free printable cover & writing prompts below
Laminate both printable templates (optional)
Attach the cover to the journal front with double sided tape
Tape the writing prompts to the front page of the journal
Using Your Birthday Journal
Every year around your child’s birthday take out their journal so that you can have loved ones to write in it. We find the best way to get the most people to sign our birthday journals is to have it out at the child’s birthday party so that everyone can sign it. This works the best if your birthday party is with family/loved ones. You can also bring it with you when visiting loved ones that may not have made it to the party for them to sign.
We have always kept my child’s journal as a place for people to write directly in it but here are some other great ideas on how to use this birthday journal:
- Keep old invites and put them in their journal so each year you can look back at them. This is a fun way to document celebrations over the years.
- You can cut sentiments out of birthday letters and tape them in the journal if you would like. This is a great way to capture notes from loved ones that may not have been able to write in the journal in person.
- I have seen people cut out newspaper articles of big world events or the most important headlines that happened that year which is a really fun addition!
Birthday Journal Prompts
Sometimes I have a family member ask what they should write in my child’s journal. I figured it would be nice to create a few writing prompts to help jump start their journal entry. These are included in the printable later on in the post.
The prompts include:
- My favorite thing about you is…
- My favorite memory of you is….
- My birthday wish for you is…
How To Print Cover Template To Fit Your Journal
This may take a little trial and error as all journals are different shapes. However, it is really simple to adjust the size of the cover and writing prompts. When you select “print” on your computer you should have an option to “scale” before pushing the final print button. This allows you to scale the template to the size you need to fit your journal.
Free Printable Birthday Journal Cover & Writing Prompts
You need to fill the box in above and the free pdf files will be sent to your inbox immediately. There should be a link for you to download the files to print off at your convenience. Please note that these are for personal and classroom use only.
If you print off on regular white printer paper I would highly recommend laminating them before taping them to the journal to protect it through the years. You could also print off on card stock if you don’t have a laminator which should be more durable.
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There are so many traditions you can do with your kids to capture memories, sometimes it can feel overwhelming. However, this is one thing I recommend to all new moms because it is so simple and the memories are so so sweet.
This is such a beautiful post, and what a great idea! New grandma here and I am going to share this with my daughter. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words Dawn! I hope your daughter loves this tradition as much as we do. Congratulations on becoming a grandma!