Ah, journals... we too are trying to rethink our Faith Journals after doing WoRM for nearly one year. We are taking a break from them this summer.

After talking with shepherds and teachers, what we will try next year is to be more guided with our questions and set aside a 5 minute time at the close of the class when teacher and shepherd can sit down with children in smaller groups to discuss what they experienced. We will still include our memory verse as an option for children to illustrate or write down and we also use stickers to decorate.

One neat thing we are going to try is using gel pens and black paper. I found a really good deal on pads at Wal-mart and I'm going to tear the pads apart and put them into their journals. I think they will like that much better than white.

I think the journal is a really valuable tool for kids and adults to bring closure to a lesson. We'll see how it goes.