Writing a Family Newspaper with Young Reporters

Why a Family Newspaper Beats a Scrapbook

Most family memories get saved in the same way: a few photographs, a birthday card, maybe a ticket stub in a drawer. Lovely, but quiet. A homemade newspaper does something different. It turns the ordinary week into a story worth printing, and it gives children a reason to write that has nothing to do with homework.

The secret is to aim small. Nobody wants to read a solemn account of a school term. Everybody wants to read about Dad setting off the smoke alarm making toast, or next door's cat being found asleep in the airing cupboard. Funny mishaps, tiny victories and running jokes are the lifeblood of a good family paper. If it made someone laugh at the time, it belongs on page one.

Setting Up Your Newsroom: Simple Roles for Every Age

Give everyone a job title and the whole thing stops feeling like a school project. Write the roles on sticky notes, stick them to the kitchen table, and let people choose. Swap them next issue so nobody gets stuck being the one who always has to spell "restaurant".

• Editor (age 9+): decides the running order, writes the headlines, has the final say on what goes in. This is the best job for a bossy child, and it teaches real judgement.
• Reporters (age 6+): find and write two or three short pieces. A report can be three sentences long and still be a report.
• Interviewer (any age): rings or visits a relative with four prepared questions and writes down the answers.
• Illustrator (age 4+): draws the masthead, the weather box, the cartoon and anything else that needs colour.
• Picture editor (age 7+): chooses which drawings go where and writes the captions underneath.
• Printer and distributor: runs the photocopies and delivers them to grandparents, neighbours and anyone who'll take one.

Pre-readers can absolutely take part. A four-year-old's drawing of the escaped hamster, with an adult writing the caption they dictate, is often the best thing in the paper.

The Interview: Getting Relatives to Talk

Interviews are where children learn that grown-ups have stories. Help them prepare four questions and nothing more, because a long list overwhelms everyone. Good openers include: What was your first job? What did you get in trouble for as a child? What's the best meal you've ever eaten?

Phone calls work well for grandparents, and video calls are even better because children can see faces soften at the questions. Teach one simple trick: after the answer, say "and then what happened?" It works almost every time, and it turns a one-line reply into a proper anecdote.

Write the answers down as you go, even roughly. If a relative mentions a specific detail — a bike with a bent wheel, a coat that smelled of coal — keep it. Specific details are what make writing feel alive, and children absorb that lesson without being told it.

Drawing, Cartoons and the All-Important Masthead

Every newspaper needs a name, and the name should be decided by vote over dinner. Keep it silly and personal. The Saturday Kitchen Times, The Garden Shed Gazette or simply Number 14 News all beat anything sensible.

Once the name is chosen, set aside a full sheet of A4 for the masthead. Big letters, drawn in pencil first, then coloured in. Add a small emblem: a teapot, a dog, a wonky bicycle. That front-page design becomes the paper's identity and can be reused every issue, with the date written in the corner.

Other regular features to draw rather than write:

• A weather box on the front page, with a hand-drawn sun or cloud and one cheeky sentence about the British summer.
• A one-panel cartoon starring a family pet or a recurring character invented by the youngest contributor.
• A "this week's small achievement" badge — swimming a length, tying a shoelace, finally beating Dad at cards.

Production Day: From Sticky Notes to Sellotape

Pick one afternoon and call it deadline day. Spread everything out on the floor: written pieces, drawings, photographs, a glue stick, scissors and a few sheets of A3 paper. A3 gives you room for two columns and a picture, which feels instantly professional.

Lay the pieces out before gluing anything. Move them around. Ask the editor to decide which story leads. Then write the headlines last, once you can see what the page needs. Short headlines with a bit of wordplay work best: "Toast Gate: Kitchen Fills With Smoke" or "Hamster Found, Slightly Chewed".

Leave a small gap somewhere for a late-breaking item. Someone always remembers something brilliant after the glue is down. Photocopy or print five or six copies, staple them, and deliver them by hand. Watching a grandparent read a story they starred in is the reward that makes children want to do it again.

Keeping It Going Without the Enthusiasm Fading

Monthly is plenty. Weekly sounds ambitious in January and becomes a chore by March. Put the next deadline on the fridge and accept that some issues will be two pages and some will be one, scrawled and gluey. Both count.

Try a rotating guest editor for each edition, and invite a relative to contribute one short piece by post or email — a memory, a recipe, a terrible joke. Keep every finished issue in a box file. In a few years you'll have a stack of newspapers that records not the big occasions, but the actual texture of family life: the burnt toast, the lost shoes, the hamster in the airing cupboard. That's the archive worth keeping.