Home Activity – Keep a Journal

Over the coming weeks, our buildings may be closed, but we are working hard to put together activities for you to do at home. Please watch our website and social media channels, we will update them daily while we can.

Our first activity is for you to keep a journal of how you feel in these strange times. Are you happy you get to spend more time at home with your loved ones? Do you miss your schoolfriends or your grandparents? Are you confused about how long it will be before you can go back to your usual activities?

John Muir was also taken on a adventure away from everything familiar to him when he was nearly 11 years old. One evening in February 1849, his father came to him while he was studying, saying ‘Ye neednae dae yer homework the nicht boys, fur we’re gaen tae America the morn.’

John and his brother David found this really exciting and ran out into the street, shouting to their friends that they were going to America the next day. Their friends didn’t believe them, however John and Davie replied ‘Jist wait an’ see if wur at school the morn’.

They weren’t at school the next day, but instead got on a train from the newly built Dunbar Station to Glasgow, and from there they got on a boat called ‘The Warren’ and spent 5 and 1/2 weeks crossing the Atlantic Ocean to a new country then set out on a long journey to a new life.

We could think of our house as ‘The Warren’ and our parents/carers as the captains of our ship.  Let’s keep a diary of our voyage through these strange times. You can fill it in as often as you like and see how your feelings change over the course of the next few weeks.

You can make up your own diary or click on the link and print out ours, double sided on A4 paper, and decorate using coloured pencils. Home-school-Journal

The journal should be folded in half, from top to bottom, in the centre of the page when it is in Landscape position. This will form the front cover, page 1 and page 2.
Punch holes on the spine when it is in the left position then tie loosely with string/wool/ribbon.