School Days, School Days...

I have been searching for a while for a sustainable way for the kids to report their learning from science experiments.

I made them these great notebooks with a blank space at the top of each page and a lined writing area at the bottom (thanks to StartWrite and cheap comb binding). And MS was faithful to take pictures during the experiments. Problem: I struggle just
getting to science experiments (last year, I delegated to one of our shared nannies; this year, ML is doing Science Saturdays each month with the kids; everybody say, "Yay, Daddy."). Downloading the pictures, getting copies printed out for each kids' notebook, cutting and pasting them, and writing about all of the experiments was not happening.

Plus, then what do we do with all of the notebooks we accumulate? I'm always thinking in terms of international mobility, especially having done emergency evacuations three times, and that means we save only a few pages from each subject each year for a folder. All that work for saving only a few pages? No, thank you.

So, this morning (our first Science Saturday for this year; a friend had done some other experiments with them a few weeks ago) I had an epiphany: a science blog! Then, I realized, why limit it to science? Why not have a place where they can report on and share about all of their school experiences? Field trips, cooking experiences, creative writing products, etc.

We've already transitioned to dictated or typed creative writing for the boys, so this is just the next logical step.

MS has been quick to pick up on all of the computer skills we've taught him, and I don't think blogging will be a steep learning curve, so I'm going to work with him this afternoon and turn it mostly over to him. I will assign each child a font (and hopefully figure out how to indicate that in the sidebar). MS can type his own entries, and I will let JW and MA (and ZL, down the road) dictate their entries/perspectives to me. I anticipate it being an excellent authentic writing outlet, because I'm sure grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins will provide a willing audience.

We'll give it a few weeks and see how it goes. School of the future, here we come.