NOL: Nucleus of Life: Writing to Build Virtue, A Guide to Journaling for Young Children was written to help parents and teachers direct their young (pre-K through fourth grade) children and students to have a biblically sound vision for life and a desire to live virtuously through their words and actions. Since writing is a powerful form of communication, students who understand this book’s approach to writing will be trained to put the appropriate words and actions from the story to be in line with the logic of our Divine Author of life. This is the ultimate goal of NOL techniques (or this book).
The approach is not set in stone as there are many ways to write. Parents and teachers can get creative with other ideas to fold into the process to reach their students. Students start with writing one word to sentences to writing paragraphs totally on their own. I’ve included sample books my children have read when they were young, a three-question worksheet to guide their thinking process when writing in the beginning, actual conversations between students and me to help create their paragraphs, and specific Bible verses used to help summarize their paragraphs about the stories or that came up as random biblical topics. The children will also value the Bible and be skilled at looking up parables and verses.
The climax of success comes from the dialogue you have with your student(s) as they come to value and desire the benefit of asking logical questions that lead to the best conclusions as a result of their growing relationship with you. The conversation that occurs between you and your student becomes a fun and engaging form of communication that successfully develops their thinking process.
