Did you know that my oldest son started a blog when he was 7?

I had been blogging for a year or two when he came home from second grade with a writing assignment.

It was a simple paragraph about his favorite colors.  After he wrote the final draft in his best handwriting, he was to “publish” it.  The “publication” direction was very open-ended with the goal to have the child think about how he could get others to read his work.

We chose to start a blog and publish it there.  Ryan was excited to have his own website and thrilled that publishing his paragraph didn’t mean he had to type or do any more writing.  The blog is still there today.

A blog is a place where kids can experience writing, display photography and express their creativity.  It doesn’t have to be a traditional blog or look anything like any other blog in the world.  It is a place where they can make all the design and publication decisions because it is THEIR space.

Ryan’s blog is private.  It is not accessible to search engines or anyone without a login created by me.  Our computer is in the living room and he is supervised online.

My boys don’t enjoy the writing process, but the things that can be blogged about are endless and don’t all include writing {or typing}:

• Art journal – photos and scans of all the child’s artwork.   Parents or kids could add commentary as to what each piece is in the child’s words or background information about the work.
• Sports record – photos, videos and memories from a season of baseball.  The time he hit a homerun could be told in his own words right after it happened.
• Building archives – photos and videos of things built from blocks, Legos or whatever the latest obsession might be.  As the child gets older, he could add links to things he wants to build and online resources to make that happen.
• Trip scrapbook – a trip to the zoo, a day at the waterpark or a visit to grandma’s house creates photos, videos, family stories and memorabilia to scan.

This could start at almost any age with a variable amount of parental intervention.  My boys like looking back at the stories and photos on MY blog and can only imagine what fun they will have to look back and see what they published!

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Go Daddy. The opinions and text are all mine.