There are many reasons you can use student blogs to homeschool. Here are just a couple of examples.
Although my children have had blogs for several years, they've not kept up with them on a regular basis. This year I've tried stay on top of it more, and my girls have been blogging more regularly.
Jerah is an avid reader and writer, so she's been posting a lot of her stories on her blog. Joely has been writing about recipes she's made, but she's also recently posted the first chapter of a story she's been writing.
Of course, blogging is a great way for my kids to practice their keyboarding skills, to gain experience in working with HTML and to have an audience for their writing.
They've both definitely been getting better at keyboarding, and they've been learning a bit about HTML.
But the audience part? That's still a bit lacking. (You see where I'm going with this?) 🙂
If you're interested in being an audience for my girls' blogs, you can find them below. Thanks in advance!
Joy,
I think it's a wonderful idea to have the kids blog as part of their homeschool. Then friends and family can read THEIR perspective on things. I'm definitely considering this for my older boys, although my husband is quite paranoid about privacy. (He'd prefer that I didn't blog at all or do Facebook, etc.)
I just might give the older boys the 'assignment' to read your kids' blogs and then start thinking about creating their own.
@Laura O, I totally understand the concern about privacy. But if you decide to go ahead with a blog, you can do a few things to help, like getting WhoIs privacy on your domain name, using pseudonymns, avoiding photographs with any unique info in the background (license plates, house addresses, unique landforms, etc.), and avoiding posting things about your regular routines.
We've obviously chosen not to blog privately, but I know of several families who do, and do it quite well. 🙂
I, too, am going to consider doing this with my children! I know my family, who don't live near us, would love to read my children's writing creations and see how their skills and creativity develop. And this may be a privacy issue for you, but I just read your youngest daughter's blog a bit, and I am wondering what age she is, and what reading level? I am fascinated by her novel's storyline and seriously want to read further chapters as she writes them! I would like to show my 7yo daughter, who is an avid reader, to encourage her in her own writing development, but I wasn't sure how to compare their ages…
@Jolyn@Budgets are the New Black, Joely just turned 8 years old. 🙂 As for reading level? Hmm. Not quite sure how to judge other than to say she's very comfortable reading E.B. White and Roald Dahl. She might be considered 4th or 5th grade reading level (public school-wise).
My kids would love to do a blog, but I too am concerned about privacy and also who might visit and the whole comment thing. I will have to look into this further to see what the possibilities are. Thanks for sharing.
For our homeschooling this year, I created a completely private blog for my girls, ages 12 and 9. It's only accessible to those to whom I've sent an invitation.
We're using the blog for all of their writing assignments. I post an assignment online with instructions and a due date; the girls each write an assignment post in response. As the year continues, I'll have them post photos, scan their art projects to post, and post videos of oral presentations.
Somehow the fun of typing and posting it online has made their writing assignments more fun. Not to mention no piles of paper!