We Have Lift Off!

They sat down at their computers, they flexed their little fingers, they listened with half an ear to what their pilot (aka Mrs F) was saying and... off they soared into the world of blogging at full throttle.

I can't even begin to share the excitement of my children about this new venture. They are over the moon about it!
They blogged steadily for an hour - most of them are still at the "hunt and peck" stage (despite constant keyboarding practice) so they weren't actually able to write that much but they were FOCUSED!

We wrote an introductory post ( I particularly liked the heading of "Ready or Not, Here I Blog!") and then they commented on each other's posts. Meanwhile (having set up the site so that I have to moderate every post and comment) I sat with the ICT teacher, my fingers flying over the keyboard (and luckily I am NOT at the "hunt and peck" stage!) trying to keep up with 14 little bloggers who kept coming up to say "Have you moderated me yet?" (I was actually grateful that 2 children were absent!)

For the weekend I sent home a 4 page letter with detailed instructions for parents on how to access the blog, navigate the blog and how to write a post - I set a homework assignment (The Most Fantastic Book I Have Ever Read) on my page and directed them all to check the page and write their assignment on their own blog page.

Tonight I checked - so far 3 children have done the assignment properly and commented on 16 other introductory posts; 2 children decided to write about completely different topics ( a holiday in Spain and  the daily routine in school - apparently all we do is Maths and eat! ) and one of my absent-on-the-day children wrote about her sick day. I wasn't quite sure how to deal with these deviant posts - we discussed at length the rules for the blog (all posts were to be related to learning) - but decided to send private comments to the authors (along with emails to their parents) to read the homework assignment carefully before posting again.

I've since been directed to a great freebie product that's a template for blog post choices ( you can find it here ) which I think will be a great way to guide my enthusiastic writers.
And what a great phrase THAT is!
"Enthusiastic writers" - I love it!!

I foresee a busy time ahead and may have to set some more stringent rules about numbers of posts and comments - at least until we settle into a comfortable routine. It's going to be a learning curve for all of us but I am just thrilled with my kids' response to it.

Our journey into blogging space is just beginning and who knows what we'll discover along the way! :)