Is your child interested in starting a blog? Do they enjoy writing or, perhaps, need to practice their writing skills? If so, blogging can be a great addition to your homeschool writing curriculum. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Have a Morning Blog Writing Session

Many productivity experts recommend doing the big things on your to-do list as soon as you start your day each morning. Many people also tout the benefits of journaling as soon as you wake up. By making blogging a part of your family’s morning routine, you’re getting the best of both worlds. Encourage your children to sit down at their computer each morning and have a blog writing session. They can write about whatever it is that is on their mind at the time. This can be a great way to not only get their thoughts down (which can be so cathartic!), but to also start their day off with a bit of creativity and communication. You may find that this becomes a habit that they genuinely enjoy.

Blogging as Part of Your Homeschool Writing Curriculum

Do your kids find it difficult to stay on track when writing. If so, I highly recommend trying out the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is essentially where you use a timer to break down a certain task into more manageable chunks (usually 25 minutes) with short breaks (usually 5 minutes) in between. Then, at the end of 4 sessions, you either have a long break or move on to another task. One app I use that has been helpful is called Brain Focus. However, any timer will do! Simply let your kids know that you are setting the timer for 25 minutes and challenge them to write as much as they can in that time. Once the timer goes off they can take a short break to do whatever and then have another session. Repeat this as many times as you would like, though you may want to stick to just one or two sessions in the beginning (30 minutes to an hour total).

Give Your Kids Blog Writing Prompts

One great way to encourage your kids’ creativity and ability to think on their feet is to give them some writing prompts to blog about. You can either assign them the writing prompt and have them write it in a set amount of time (say, an hour) OR you can simply assign a deadline (such as the end of the week). Here are a few writing prompts to get you started:

1. Review your favorite book
2. Review the last book you read
3. Review your favorite movie
4. Review the last movie you watched
5. Review a book-to-movie adaptation
6. What I Want to Be When I Grow Up
7. 10 Things About Me
8. My Favorite Things
9. A Short Story About ___
10. My Favorite Memory
11. My Bucket List
12. What I Would Do If I Won the Lottery
13. My Favorite Recipe
14. Create and Prepare a Recipe
15. A Letter to Myself in the Future
16. Interview Someone You Admire
17. Interview Your Mom
18. Interview Your Dad
19. Interview Your SIbling
20. Interview Your Grandparent
21. Interview Your Best Friend
22. My Best Tip on (their favorite topics)
23. 5 Things You Should Know About (their favorite topic)
24. Where I Want to Be in 5 Years
25. My Thoughts On (current event/hot topic)

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Practice Different Writing Styles

Blogging is a great way to practice different writing styles. For example, your child could cover topics that are:

Educational

Perhaps your child is passionate about a certain topic and wants to share what they have learned or experienced with their audience. This could be a wonderful opportunity to teach your child how to explain concepts to people in a way that they can understand. It’s also a great way to broach the topic of providing sources to back up your claims (which will come in handy when they start writing research papers).

Related Article: How to Find Your Blog Voice

Instructional/Tutorial

If your child has a particular skill set that they want to share with the world, their blog can be the perfect platform for them to do that. They can create blog posts that walk people step-by-step through a process (such as making something, cooking something, fixing something, etc). Again, this helps them to hone their communication skills. It may also have the benefit of helping them improve their skills. I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I am teaching someone how to do something, I come up with tricks and tips I hadn’t even considered before.

Persuasive

Perhaps your child is passionate about a specific topic and want to share their viewpoint with others. Writing an editorial or opinion piece on a current event can be a great way for your child to practice speaking their mind and getting their point across. Who knows, perhaps this will inspire them to take action on that topic outside of blogging/

Entertaining

If your child has a humorous side, blogging can be a great way for them to hone their funny bone. Whether they are recounting funny stories that people can relate to or sharing funny things that they have encountered online, this could be the perfect outlet for them. In fact, many entertainment blogs have made quite a name for themselves. After all, in this world, levity and laughter can be healing. Who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh?

Reflective

Your child can also use their blog as a way to reflect on the many things about life that are worth considering. Whether they are reflecting on a recent event, working their way through a problem they are facing, or simply using their blog as an online journal, it can help them to process not just life, but their feelings about life as they move throughout this world.

Document Their Homeschool Journey

Blogging can also be a great way for kids to document their homeschool journey over the years. After all, many of us moms consider ourselves to be homeschool bloggers. Why not let our kids get in on the fun. In addition to blogging about their personal homeschool experiences (what they love, what they struggle with, what they do on a regular basis, etc), they can also use their blog to speak to other homeschool kids (and parents). They can provide reviews on various homeschool materials, give ideas on fun homeschool activities, share their tips on studying, and so much more. In other words, they can use their blog to not only record their experience, but to provide value for other homeschoolers.

A Few Tips on Kid Blogging

Ok, so now that you have an idea of all the ways you can use blogging as part of your homeschool, let’s talk about a few things.

How to Get Started

If you’re not sure how to get started, don’t worry. I already wrote a post about it, which you can find here: “Kid Blogging 101: How Your Kids Can Start Their Own Blog”  It will provide you with everything you and your kids need to know to get started.

Do you need a fresh start on blogging? I would love to guide you through the blogging process! Check out my blogging courses! 

Safety Tips

As you know, the internet can be a beautiful yet scary place. It’s critical that you take precautionary measures as well as teach your children how to blog safely. In addition to making sure you take advantage of the domain privacy add-on when you buy a domain, here are a few simple tips you and your kids can use to stay safe while blogging:

• Teach your kids to NEVER share private information online or with strangers. This includes information like their full name, their social security number, their home address, their phone number, or even their full birthday. Here is a great resource on Kids and Online Safety. 
• Consider assigning your children pen names instead of their actual names. They can come up with pen names based on things like their favorite hobbies (SkaterBoy), their favorite book or movie characters (Luna), or a nickname they were given (Wild Child).
• Consider not using pictures of your child’s face or any other identifying part of their body. Instead, they can get creative with taking pictures of things in their environment that represent who they are and what they enjoy. Also be sure they don’t take pictures that could identify things that could lead to your home (such as street signs, address signs, or license plates).
• Although the blog is your child’s, you should remain the admin. This means you are in control of not only the password, but of the comments that people leave. Get into the habit of checking the backend of your child’s blog regularly to intercept any negative comments (though, if your child is older, you may want to speak with them about your role in monitoring their blog). You could also check their blog posts before they hit publish, just to be sure they aren’t posting anything that they shouldn’t.
• Another option is to make their blog private so that only people who have the link or the password can access it. That way, you can better ensure that only people you trust can view it. This way, they can share pictures that they wouldn’t want to share with the world, but DO want to share with family and friends.

I hope that this article on Blogging as Part of Your Homeschool Writing Curriculum has helped you to get some ideas on how you can use blogging as part of your family’s homeschool journey. If you do decide to help your kids start a blog, I’d love to hear about how it’s going. Feel free to comment below and let me know! Until then, happy blogging (and homeschooling)!