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The Beginner's Guide to The Positive Doodle Diary

BY Finn + Ali
Co-founders of The Positive Planner Ali + Finn smiling at the camera

Our Beginner's Guide to The Positive Doodle Diary and how daily journaling and doodling can help the little people in your lives.

 

The Positive Doodle Diary is one of the newest members of The Positive Planner Family and we’re immensely proud of it. We’re all about empowering people to prioritise their mental health and wellbeing here at The Positive Planner and so for us, a book for children was an absolute no brainer! 

As with all life skills, early learning is vital in order for it to become part of the routine and rhythm of our lives. Emotional literacy really is one of the biggest gifts we can give our children in order for them to thrive and flourish in life. 

 

 

Now we've hit September, we're at the start of a new school year here in the UK and it’s a time we remember well. Pre-school nerves can bubble away at the best of times but after the last year or so we’ve had, our children need more support than ever before. Navigating the challenges of being away from school and in many cases learning alone, being away from friends and the clear structure that school life brings have been frighteningly difficult for our children. 

So with this in mind, we thought we’d like to re-introduce The Positive Doodle Diary to you with a Beginner’s Guide here and show you how it can help the little people in your lives. We hope you find it useful.

 

 

What is The Positive Doodle Diary?

The Positive Doodle Diary is a mindful gratitude journal designed to empower children with confidence through creativity.

We’ve made The Positive Doodle Diary all about encouraging creativity, self-expression and mindfulness through daily doodling and simple journaling. It’s packed full of different activities that will lead a child to explore themes of confidence, resilience, kindness and even self-care.

 

 

What’s in it?
  • Daily Dear Diary pages
    These give a child space and the tools to identify, articulate and write about how they feel, reflect on what to remember about their day as well as sections for self-care and gratitude. The Doodle uses weather symbols to describe feelings - easy and relatable language for children of even a young age to use.
  • Daily Doodle Diary pages
    Space for free doodling is hugely important for children. The benefits of doodling are vast, from relieving tension and developing emotional intelligence through to helping us retain information.
  • Daily positive affirmations pages
    These are great for 2 reasons. We’re huge fans of mindful colouring and the positive effects it can bring. But the biggest value are the affirmations themselves. We know from experience that a gentle, positive mindset can be hard to sustain. Giving ourselves little pep talks throughout the day really does make a difference to how we feel about ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in, but if we don’t have a reminder, it’s easy to forget and slip into negativity. These affirmations are perfect as gentle reminders through their days and weeks.
  • Exercises for self-care and positivity
  • Gentle breathwork and yoga exercises designed especially for children.

 

 

In amongst the fun and creativity of this book, there are many evidence-based techniques and strategies to build resilience, enhance positive self-image, develop empathy, encourage growth, create intrinsic motivation and instil a sense of calm. There are also two useful ‘how to’ sections, one for children and one for adults, including messages from our expert collaborators and also the science behind the Doodle Diary.

 

 

Who’s it for?

We believe the Doodle is perfect for children between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. Older children can use the diary on their own if they want to, but younger ones will need guidance. 

It has to be said though that the Doodle isn’t just for little people. We have an ever-growing group of adults who just love the colour and vibrance of the Doodle and have kept it for themselves!

 

 

How to get started

We believe the key to The Positive Doodle Diary is for a child to explore and use it at their own pace. The Doodle isn’t homework and shouldn’t be about pressure. 

We designed it as a diary to be used every day and in total there are pages for 45 days. However, we’ve left it all undated so a child can dip in and out as they wish - not every activity has to be done every day. The most important thing is that a child wants to do this, rather than has to. 

Children see and children do. At The Positive Planner, we’re huge fans of modelling behaviour. We know it’s a key way how children learn and we’ve had wonderful feedback from parents and carers who have been working together with their children in family journaling sessions - kids with their Doodles and adults with The Positive Planner or The Positive Wellness Journal. 

These sessions can be a lovely springboard for chats and discussions about feelings and emotions. It all helps facilitate a conversation around looking after ourselves as a unit - something that really makes our hearts sing!

 

Want to get started?

We hope you've found this guide to The Positive Doodle Diary useful. You'll find lots more tips and tricks on journaling with your little ones on our Positive Doodle Diary Instagram page here.

 

If you'd like to try journaling with the little people in your life, take a look at our exclusive online Resource LibraryWe've got free Mini Editions of The Positive Doodle Diary as well as The Positive Planner and The Positive Wellness Journal there. You can also find our Parent Pack in our online shop - The Positive Doodle Diary and The Positive Planner at a special discount price of £35. 🙃

 

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