As the parent of a young child, you may think your child is too young to have his or her own blog. Here's your chance to reconsider that idea! There are several free blog sites that make it as easy as 1-2-3 to get started. And writing for an audience gives kids a meaningful purpose — a reason to use their developing reading and writing skills. In constructing a blog post, your child will have to think about writing clearly and completely, and holding a reader's interest for the whole time. If an online blog feels like too much, start with a special journal or notebook.

Step 1: Have a talk about Internet safety
Writing for an online audience is fun and exciting! It should also be done with caution. Talk with your child about who will have access to the blog, and make decisions about using full names, locations, and school name.

Step 2: Choose an online blog site
WordPress, Blogger and Edublogs are all free and easy to use. Parents create an account for their child to use, and accounts can be restricted during set up.

Step 3: Start writing!
The ideas for blog posts are endless. Here are a few suggestions to get a child started:

• What hobbies do you have? Share a picture of any collections you have or tell your readers how you got interested in that hobby.
• What's the best book you've read lately? What did you like about it?
• Post a picture you've taken recently and tell about it.
• Describe your favorite thing to have for dinner.
• List all the ways you can think of to earn money around the house.

Blogging may not be for every child, but it might be for yours! While some kid blogs have many followers and have lasted a long time, most are read by relatives and friends, and a child's interest in posting may come and go. Regardless, blogs can provide an outlet for creative and fun writing!

Interested in reading what kids are blogging about? Here are a few kid blogs to check out:

• National Geographic Kids Kids from all over the world write posts for this blog. Many posts provide kids-eye view into events and places. Other posts review books.
• Childtastic books "Great books for great readers" This blog is co-written by a Mother-Daughter blogging team. They blog about children's books with each providing her own perspective on it.
• Sports Illustrated for Kids Short posts written by kids about sport topics.