Nothing makes a writer work a little harder, edit a little more carefully, and reach a little deeper for interesting prose than the prospect of actually being read.

There is a great creative writing resource in front of you at this very moment.

A WordPress blog.

Let your kids choose a subject, a topic, a focus, and give them the experience of being a published writer. Blogs offer the opportunity to be read and even receive input from others. Whether you restrict the blog to friends and family, or let it go public, writing is more meaningful when someone other than mom or dad is going to be reading it.

A few blogging ideas:

• Book reviews
• An online journal
• Log science experiments
• History reports
• Photography
• Hobby related
• Music compositions

WordPress is a free blogging platform that is user friendly, and has options for themes that your student can use to express their chosen blogging interest.

This can also serve as a supervised course in the proper use of social media. Kids who chat and text freely may not take the potential of social media seriously. They need to learn that what they publish is forever out there in the world to be retrieved by anyone with means and motive. They will also be held accountable for content quality and accuracy by their readership.

Blogging is going to be part of our composition lesson plans in the upcoming second semester. We will see how blogging helps them take their creative writing to another level.

Do your kids blog? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below.