Some parents believe that internet is dangerous for kids under 13. They try to limit the access of their children to the online world, but this is not a good idea, as kids are inquisitive by nature, so they will try to find ways of doing what they want. A much better approach for parents who want to stay in control is to make a blog for their little ones and encourage them to write often and to unleash their creativity there instead of doing who knows what.
Starting Your Blog
The fastest and easiest way to help your child make a blog is to use a hosted platform like Blogger or WordPress. Everybody can create a blog there and start writing in as little as a few minutes. It is free and if you put enough time into researching a good layout, the blog can look truly professional. Anyway, when it comes to kids under 13, it is important that you choose a cheerful layout with many colors and with funny fonts for the article titles.
Populating the Blog with Content
If your kid has any specific passion, you could encourage him to start a blog on that topic. Sit together and make a list of main things that are related to that topic, so that you come up with a list of 5-6 categories for the blog. Then explain the kid how each article needs to belong to one of the categories, so that the blog is structured well and the information is easy to find.
Pets can be a good topic for a kid’s blog. Encourage him or her to read about various breed of cats and dogs and to publish the information online, for other people to find it. If you have pets, get him write about them, tell funny stories you surely have and share them with all their friends.
If there’s no well-defined passion yet, encourage the child to blog about everyday life happenings, to tell stories or to simply post funny jokes or poems.
Teach the kid how to publish photos on the blog. Images are very important and you surely have photos from trips you took together, therefore there will be plenty of material to choose from.
Explain your child what comments are and how to moderate and reply them. Encourage the conversation, because this is an important part of the fun of having a blog.
Maintenance
Your kid will have fun, but you need to think further than to simply make a blog and start publishing posts. You need to make sure you do regular backups, so you have a possibility of retrieving the information, should anything happen with the blog.
Pushing It One Step Further
If you see the kid gets serious about blogging, consider buying a dedicated domain name for the blog. It costs about $10-$15 per year and you can host it for free on those blogging platforms, therefore you don’t need to move any files from one server to another. Your kid will be thrilled to have a special spot on the internet where to write about things he/she loves.
