Blogging: An unconventional writing curriculumby Karen Edmisten | More from this Blogger 24 Jan 2007 02:39 PM A recent conversation between my two oldest girls: "What are you going to write about on your blog today?" "I'm going to post my story about the purple penguin." "Cool! I'm going to list some of my favorite books. Do you think you'll get any comments?" "I hope so. I love it when Daddy leaves me a comment." "Me, too!" Our "living is learning" lifestyle incorporates a lot of real life and everyday activities as part of our curriculum. Andrea wrote about exactly this kind of thing here and here. When you homeschool, it just makes good sense to "count" everything you can as education, because it is all education. Hobbies, pleasure reading, trips to museums, soccer, swimming ... everything we do has value and contributes to my girls' formation, academically and otherwise. So, it just makes sense at our house to include blogging as part of our writing curriculum. My two oldest girls each have their own blog, and look forward to writing. It's great practice for them in so many ways: creative writing, mechanics, spelling and grammar ... all of these things are discussed in the context of their blogs. How do you set up a blog for your child and still observe some basic internet safety? * Choose a blogging service (some are free, some have fees) that allows you to set up a "private" blog, meaning that the url and the daily content will not be picked up by search engines. For a very safe (and as private as you like) Blogging service, check out the Families.com MySite. * Be selective in giving out the blog address. Ours go only to family and a few close friends. This way, my kids have the fun of the interaction on their blogs, but I don't have to worry about strangers visiting. * Consider having your child use an online pseudonym, and don't allow them to post identifying details about their location or daily schedule. * Don't allow your child to post links on his or her blog (sites that are visited directly from your child's blog may have counting or tracking software. This means that the visited site may be able to see your child's url in their statistics.) With a basic safety net in place, and your help and supervision, your children can be the next blogging sensation (at least within their family circle.) The frequent writing practice is fun and painless. And, before you can say, "Did you get any comments today?" you'll see it bearing fruit in their other writing as well. Learn more about Karen Edmisten  Karen is the homeschooling, chocolate-loving mom of three daughters, whom she has been homeschooling since their birth. Relevanthomeschooling tags User Comments Nola Redd (7081) 24 Jan 2007 10:04 PMA fantastic plan! I would also recommend taking a look at writing.com (here's my port: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/user_id/scottiegaz) You can set up a free membership and put 10 items on, and get 'reviews' for feedback. You can also set up parental access (not sure how that works since mine aren't online) and can allow items to be accessed only be predetermined groups (ie family and friends). There are other stories to read and review, and I know the parental content allows you to set the rating allowed; and their rating is stricter than, say, the movie theaters. Community Tags blog, bloggers, blogging Discuss this article
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