With the summer holidays fast approaching are any of you panicking about how to keep the kids entertained all summer?

As well as encouraging plenty of fresh air and activity with friends, how about challenging them to set up their own 'summer holiday blog' to keep a record of their holiday?  It'll keep them busy and they'll learn some great skills along the way. 

They can include photos of your family holiday, write ups of their favourite activities, scan in pictures they have drawn, list their favourite songs - a kind of online holiday journal.  It can be as simple or as detailed as they care to make it.  It will be a fantastic record to look back on and share and give them a real sense of achievement.

You don't even have to be going away on holiday to take part in our children's holiday blog link.  It could be simply be a record of things they have enjoyed doing over the school holiday period.  And, of course, the end of the summer holiday doesn't necessarily have to signal the end of their blog.  If they enjoy it, why not keep it going?

Getting your child involved in setting up their own blog can be a great opportunity to educate them about safe internet usage and make them aware of potential dangers.   What better way to explore and tackle these issues than with you on hand and involved in their project?  As a minimum, set up your child's blog to have comments moderated - and have all comments emailed to you for approval. Also check your child's post to make sure they are not divulging personal details - getting your child to write under a false name is also advised - see our resources link below for more advice in this area.

We'd love to see the results.  Post a link here and don't forget to check back to read the other blogs.  We'll keep this updated as a rolling summer holiday carnival blog.  We'd also love to read your comments on this idea below!

Useful resources to help get you started:

Tutorial on setting up a summer holiday blog

Interesting article from BBC on children who use technology being better writers

Kidscape's advice on staying safe online