I’m hoping I did the right thing. I setup a blog for my little sister in law on a subpage of one of my domains.

Why did I do it? There are a few reasons. She finished up her school year a few days ago. All I’ve heard in the last few days is “I’m bored. I don’t have anything to do.” I thought having a blog would give her something to do.

When she is in school or hanging out with her friends, all I hear is “So and so did this. So and so did that!” I’m tired of constantly being her outlet for the teeny bopper 13 year old drama. Now she’s got a place to rant about her life, school, etc. I did setup some ground rules for that, though. She’s not allowed to use names, and she’s not allowed to get specific.

I also know starting next summer she will have summer reading and homework projects to do between school years. I thought the blog would not only help her improve her writing skills, but it will get her used to doing school work in the summer. Of course the major difference is that the blog will be fun. I promised I would make a list of topics for her. Each day I’m going to give her a word or topic, and she gets to put her thinking cap on, user her imagination, and come up with something to write about. I think these exercises will help her greatly.

Right now she’s on a “blog probation”. The blog is only available to family and friends who register as a reader. It will stay like this until I feel her out and make the decision that it’s safe for her to open it to the masses.

I know she’s 13, and she’s been using the internet for a good many years, but I just want to make sure she knows what’s appropriate to post and what’s not. I feel rules are very important in this situation, and if she doesn’t abide by them, she’ll lose the blog.

She’s extremely excited about this, and she’s already written at half a dozen or more posts since yesterday.

So, what are your thoughts on giving a child a blog? How old do you think a child should be before they’re allowed to publicly publish their blog? I’d love to hear any thoughts you have about these questions or any other comments you may have.

Please bare with me while I’m messing with my layout.  I know I keep changing it, but I’m having some problems.  The one I really like keeps messing up my comments, and the next one I chose gave me a few different problems.  I’m trying to find one that I like enough to stick with it for awhile.  I’m horrible about getting tired of layouts and changing them up all the time, and I’m trying to move away from that.

If you are a blogger, did you consider your writing skills before you began your blog?  Have you thought about starting a blog, but you feel your writing skills are inadequate?

I’ve had many conversations with bloggers who do not feel their writing skills are up to par, but they continue to write because it makes them happy.  My writing skills may not be the greatest, but I know you can read my blog and understand what I’m saying.

I’ve come across many blogs where it was basically impossible to figure out what the author was trying to get across.  Either poor grammar or poor english is normally a factor in these situations.

For anyone who would like to improve or maybe brush up on their writing skills there are options out there.  You can opt for the more expensive route which would be to take a writing course at a local college, or you can save money by taking a writing course online.

A friend shared a link with me today to a listing of 10 Universities that offer free writing courses online.   Whether you’re a simple blogger like me or you’re a professional writer wanting to brush up on your skills there are courses available for every level free of charge.

One of the first things you should always do when starting a new blog is claim it with Technorati. That’s what I’m doing now with this post. If you haven’t submitted your blogs to Technorati, sign up for a free account, fill out the claim form, and choose which way you want to claim your blog. You can do a “quick claim” where you provide your WordPress login info or you can do a “post claim” like I’m choosing to do.

With the “post claim” all you have to do is insert a little code that links to your Technorati Profile. See that’s not hard to do at all!