Coaching My Kids to Write Through Blogging

Emma asked if she could make a blog post this evening when she saw me working on my new template/layout for this blog.

We have a family blog that rarely gets posted on, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to post something recent on it.

I later realized that this is also a great opportunity to encourage my children to write and express themselves through blogging on our family blog. We are able to update family and friends on what we are up to, our children improve on their typing and writing skills, and they become familiar with internet publishing. How cool is that?

I do recommend some of the following tips when asking your kids to post/blog:

• If it goes on the World Wide Web, it somewhat means the World Will Watch.
• It's important not to get too personal, or give out sensitive information such as travel dates, addresses, and phone numbers.
• Make this a team effort. Blog WITH your children rather than use this as another "babysitting" tool. 
• These moments provide teaching moments with your children as well.
• It is important to let them write in their own voice.  This first post from Emma took some patience. She doesn't type yet, and she attempts to use words she can't spell. Rather than getting focused on correcting grammar, and how I would say things, I let her say what she had to say in her own voice. We later corrected some spelling and a few minor grammar spots as we read through the post. Most of the corrections were things that she picked up on. The point is to make this a fun thing.