Raise your hand if your homeschooled child has a blog and you use it as an outlet for their creative writing? I’ve run across a few. Some of them have seriously impressed me, too! I even started a private blog for my ten year old last year, hoping to use it as a place for her to write to an audience- even if that audience was only our immediate family. There’s only one problem..
We never do it.
She rarely asks to do it, I rarely make her do it.. between all the regular subjects, assignments, chores, housework, church (and all the things that go on inbetween: reading, playing outside, watching tv, goofing off…) I’m not really sure how and when and where to implement that.
I haven’t decided if I should give assignments: “Write a short story/poem/persuasive essay to post on your blog.”
Or if I should post things after the fact: “Well done, now I want to you practice your typing skills and go post this on your blog.”
Or if I should let her just WRITE.. creatively, as the whim moves her: “How about you spend about 20 minutes writing on your blog. Whatever you want.”
Or maybe all 3? And don’t even get me started on whether or not I should be proofreading and having her re-write and correct grammar or if it should be “free space.”
I just want her to become a confident and skilled writer. That comes by writing. Lots and lot of writing. Which I haven’t had her do nearly enough of. Which I am amending this year. I want her to be comfortable with writing for herself and writing to be read, and that’s where the blog comes in.
I’m not looking for anyone to tell me what to do,.. but if you use a blog (private, public or otherwise) as an outlet for your child’s writing, I’d love to see/hear how others are doing it. I’d also like to know how you handle posting. Do you preview before they post? I’m looking for a little inspiration here. Whatcha got??
Photo Credit: John Ward, via CC.2.0
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I got nothin’! But I would love to hear what others have to say as well!! 🙂
All three of my kids have blogs. My son has not written anything on his for a few years. When he did write, he posted about his Lego creations, writing a little blurb about each one. At the time, his assignment was to write ‘something’ every school on his blog, and that’s what he came up with. My girls are write more regularly on theirs. Both girls have blogging on their school assignments about 3 times a week. My 8 year old has lately been writing up recipes she’s made. That’s been an exercise in summarizing, since I’ve told her… Read more »
Yes, we blog. Yes we blog for school. Yes it is a difficult thing to get to when there is so much else that is pressing and important. I schedule a blog post for every few days – maybe 2 or 3 a week in my Homeschool Tracker. I leave them empty so that I can fill in what they write about after the fact. Sometimes they just want to showcase their artwork (I let them scan art and post it), sometimes they write whatever is on their mind. Lately that is all I ever make them do because we… Read more »
Ladies! Thanks so much for chiming in.. this is definitely something that I want to encourage my daughter to do (and eventually my other two children as well) as it will not only give them an outlet to write, encourage them to write, and help them practice writing for others, but as Joy mentioned, lead into other skills as well – such as basic html code and even photography, photo editing, and who knows what else. I just need to sit down with my husband and then with my daughter and we need to decide whether she wants to keep… Read more »