Many of us struggle to get our teens to write more, or in my case, to write period. They need writing practice, especially if they plan to go to college or have an online business. Some teens love writing and some loathe it. Others are ambivalent about it because they haven’t done much of it.
Blogging
How can you get your teenager to write? Have them start a blog. Blogging is a great way to practice writing. Having to post an article of 400 or more words 2-3 times a week will make your teen a much better writer. What most kids of all ages lack is the practice of putting words on paper and presenting clear ideas.
There are a couple of very easy ways to get started for free. I recommend Blogger.com or Typepad.com. Should your teen’s blog turn out to be something he or she is really proud of and wants to publish onto the blogosphere, these two platforms are easily portable to a WordPress blog (WordPress.org software, it’s free, too).
You’ll Eventually Want WordPress Software
WordPress is the standard software used by most serious bloggers. It’s easy to install and use, and it is extremely powerful because you can add plugins for functionality, edit the theme files, or design your own themes using PHP and CSS with a little HTML thrown in. They can check out books from the library to learn these programming languages on their own. These languages also count as computer science credits when you’re putting together a high school transcript for college.
Blogger, Typepad and WordPress allow your teen to keep her or his blog private, or let only those you allow to see it. I recommend private or limited access until your teen is 18 or older. There are too many predators on the internet to chance one of them befriending your son or daughter through his or her blog. Those of us who blog publicly know that anyone can make up a persona online for any purpose. You very likely don’t want your teen interacting with people you don’t know in real life.
Here are some recommendations:
- Have them pick a topic, even if it’s going to be a personal diary
- Discuss the topic before signing up for an online account
- You, the parent, should sign up for the account
- Consider making your teen his or her own category on your blog if you don’t want them to have their own blog
- Have your teen guest author posts on your blog
- Encourage creativity with the use of multimedia, such as background themes, photos and videos along with written text
- Discuss the content of the posts, especially as they relate to a specific topic if one was chosen
- Subscribe to your teen’s blog and read the posts if the blog is not private (if it is private, just make sure it stays that way)
If the blog is not so personal as to be private and is shared with a limited list of visitors, be sure to add relatives and family friends to the allowed visitors list so they can see what’s going on in their loved one’s life. The whole family may end up in the stories, pictures and videos, so watch out when they have a camera aimed in your direction.
A Scrapbook Blog
A blog can be a great place to start an online scrapbook. Since teens spend a lot of time online, scrapbooking online can be an excellent way to get them doing something creative with some of that computer time and share it with family and friends. They can write, add photos, design themes and add videos in their posts. These skills are directly portable to the presentation skills they will need later in life. Here is a link to a friend of mine, Karen, who blogs specifically about scrapbooking: Scraps of Mind.
Some other ideas to get your teen writing regularly are:
- the old, handwritten journal; It has a big advantage that if a really good hiding place can be found, it can’t be hacked
- an offline digital journal in a word processor; the file can be password protected for privacy, as long as your teen doesn’t have a sibling computer-savvy enough to break into protected files
- consider file encryption if your teen wants real electronic privacy, but that can be a bit expensive
Whatever method you choose, I hope it will get your teenager writing on a regular basis!
October 12th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Great article.
One point though: encryption is not expensive. In fact, it’s free. As in free speech, not just as in free lunch.
Visit http://www.gnupg.org/ to become acquainted with encrypted communication tools, useful for emails and such.
Visit http://www.truecrypt.org/ to freely and very securely encrypt entire harddrives.
Be aware, though, that once equipped with these tools, if your teen wants to hide things from you, even the NSA might not be able to recover them. They are professional grade tools.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
These are great suggestions for encouraging teens to write, but don’t forget fame and fortune. Achieving either can be hard work for a blogger, but it does provide motivation and the incentive to keep on plugging away.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Hi JG,
Since the encrypted files would be on a particular PC, we parents can do something the NSA can’t do, we can take the machine away altogether if we suspect trouble. Still, that is a good argument for not allowing them to have encrypted files.
Also, teens aren’t that hard to read, so figuring out their passwords isn’t as tough as it is for a security-conscious adult who really knows what’s going on.
Hi Sandra,
Thanks, you’re right that growing a blog is a big lesson in perseverance and dedication. Great things to teach our kids. It can also get them to define “fame and fortune” for themselves. What would a teen decide success is? It helps them to set goals. Great ideas!
February 11th, 2009 at 11:47 am
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February 17th, 2009 at 12:02 am
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February 18th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I’m a teenaged blogger, and It’s completely helped my writing. My friends and I blog together, and its fun and great.
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January 16th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
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January 23rd, 2010 at 5:42 pm
My desktop’s monitor died yesterday (two short days after the warranty expired). We use our desktop for kids’ homework and websurfing, watching movies and backing up our laptops w/ carbonite. We don’t own a TV. So now, we are trying to decide. Should we replace the blown monitor with another computer monitor or a flat screen TV? We have the equipement to hook the computer to a TV. We’re looking at 22-23 inch monitors/tvs. Can anyone give me any tips on how to choose? I have no idea what the differences are between the two Thanks!
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February 28th, 2010 at 7:30 am
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I mean everytime there is an earthquake, a flood, an oil spill – there’s always a group of heartless people who rip off tax payers.
This is in response to reading that 4 of Oprah Winfreys “angels” got busted ripping off the system. Shame on them!
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/19/crimesider/entry5251471.shtml