On New Year’s Eve, make this Best of the Year free printable journal together with kids! Filled with writing and drawing prompts, it captures their best memories of the past year and prompts them to make resolutions for the year to come.
The end of each year is the time when many of us naturally stops and has a moment of reflection, pondering over everything that happened over the last twelve months, what we had accomplished and what kind of changes we want to see happening in the new year.
Every year, on New Year’s eve, my husband and I sit down and make our lists of wishes for the new year, then exchange them and talk over all the points. But this year, our routine is going to be a little different. You see, our oldest is old enough to stay with us, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. So the questions is, how can we include him in our tradition?
That’s what prompted me to make a family-friendly “Best of the Year” journal. The idea of this journal is to include all the usual questions about the new year’s resolutions along with the last year’s reminiscences, while making the format simple and fun for children to fill in. It doesn’t just include writing prompts either! It has drawing prompts, so even if you child is just beginning to write, he or she can still enjoy the journal. My son, who just turned five, liked to draw and colour, did some writing and asked me to fill in some pages while he dictated his answers.
Most of all, he was excited about making a book!
Book Creating for Kids
Filling in a list of questions seems a little like homework, but making a whole book…
Well, there is something grand about it!
My son loves making books. It is an interest that I can sincerely relate to, having created my share of scrapbooks, sketchbooks and photobooks. It’s fun to watch him come up with his own projects now. Often, when he gets a new sketchbook, he decides to turn it into a journal, or he folds a few pieces of paper in half and throws together a book in an hour. His latest work was called “How plants grow” and included some diagrams of seeds sprouting. So I know that if making a book is involved, he will love the activity for sure.
As we got into this hobby, we also had to learn a little about bookbinding. I suggest a very simple method, but to some kids it can be an introduction to book production at home!
Also try: 52 Questions to Ask Children and Back-to-School Book of Writing Prompts!
New Year’s Questions
The book consists of the cover + ten pages filled with questions, encouraging self-reflection. While answering them, you will:
- compare yourself a year ago and now (my son said that he “got bigger and stronger”, and he also drew more hair on his end-of-the-year portrait)
- remember favourites of the year: books, movies, songs, foods, things and words
- remember people who were with you this year: new friends, old friends, inspiring people and even rivals
- describe the year in three words (my son’s words were “fun, great and amazing”)
- remember the best moment of the year
- make resolutions for the next year
It’s geared towards kids, but it’s certainly not for kids only. You can fill this journal with your partner or offer them to guests at your New Year’s party!
How to Bind the Book
Good news – you will only need three sheets of paper for creating this book! You will also not need to do any cutting to assemble this book. Just print the free template below and fold. However, you will need to be careful about how you print – the design is meant for printing on both sides of paper.
First, print pages that are marked “1 & 10”, “3 & 8” and “5 & 6”. Next, you’ll be feeding the same pages back into the printer and printing on the other side of them. The cover goes on the back of the page “1 & 10”. The page “2 & 9” goes on the back of the page “3 & 8”. The page “4 & 7” goes on the back of the page “5 & 6”. After all the pages are printed, stack them together, following the numbers at the bottom of each page. Fold the page at the line in the middle. You will get a book of 10 pages! Next, punch holes with a hole punch and thread the pages together.
Watch the video in this post to see all the steps!
Also Try
Free drawing prompts for children
Thanks for reading!
Hey there! This book is SOO fun-tastic! My 8 yr old is always looking for books to write, books to create, books to illustrate, of her very own, but she gets the first few pages done then drops it. Thank you ADHD. Anyway this is thee perfect length, excellent illustrations, easy to self-create & complete, independently, for the holiday season. I have been a long time subscriber of yours and very grateful for all you share for FREE–it was a great chance for me to give back as I purchased quite a few different downloads for kids school holidays! Thank you Merry Christmas Happy New Year !!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the feedback and support. Knowing that there is someone out there who has been subscribed to my blog for a while and uses my templates helps to get going.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!