Making New Friends | Tips to Help Kids Create Friendships
Preteen journaling—
Some children make friends easily, but for others it’s a more of a struggle. For this group of children, learning how to handle the challenges with making new friends is the key to actually making friendships.
In short, if children become uptight about their inability to make friends and they focus greatly on that, they might feel inadequate and frustrated and that might make it harder for them to make friends in the future.
Creating and using a journal can help a child make new friendships in several ways, including boosting self esteem and helping a child to express emotions.
Journaling boosts self esteem
When a child keeps a journal, he or she generally will have higher self-esteem than a child who doesn’t keep a journal. Because a journal is a safe and secure environment, kids will feel comfortable talking not only about their daily failures and frustrations, but also about the good things they have done and the positive traits they see in themselves.
Once comfortable with keeping a journal, a child might use it to give himself a pat on the back or to highlight daily achievements. A child might even discover that a journal is a safe place to be a bit arrogant and make declarations akin to “I’m all that”.
If children don’t naturally journal in a positive way, parents can help them along by providing writing prompts that include positive thoughts or parents can give their kids a prompt every now and then that encourages them to list their favorite traits or things they do particularly well.
When a child is journaling regularly and using these tools to improve self esteem, the improved self esteem will become obvious to other children who might be attracted and want to be friends with the child who previously had a hard time making a new friend or forming new friendships.
One lesson kids can learn from this is that people are attracted to others who have good energy. If kids begin to improve their self esteem, they will likely carry with them a positive energy that will attract other kids who will then want to befriend them.
Express emotions
If a child is having a hard time making new friends, a journal can help a child work through these difficult and painful emotions. Sometimes things seem overwhelming and a child might not know how to handle his or her emotions, but writing things down, getting a clear picture of what happened, getting a clear picture of how to solve a problem and getting an idea about how to deal with things can be highly therapeutic.
Once things are out on paper, they might not seem quite so overwhelming in real life.
It’s also through this journaling that a child might discover some easy answers or come up with some solid ideas for working through these frustrations.
Keeping a journal is a simple practice that, with time, can provide a nice boost to a child’s self esteem and help him to express emotions. Over time this will help the child feel comfortable making and keeping healthy relationships.
Until next time, happy journaling…
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Journal Buddies builds creative writing skills in boys and girls.
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Related Articles:
- Good Relationships: Make New Friends with Journaling
- Girls Self Esteem Facts | Six Alarming Facts You Need to Know
- Preteen Friendships | How Journaling can Help
- Journal Writing Improves Self-Esteem
- Emotional Relationships | Helping Kids Relate to Others
- Good Relationships | Three Tips for Tweens
- Controlling Relationships | Helping Kids Deal with Them
