Adventures In Blogging As a Homeschool Learning Project

Homeschool moms are experts at turning any activity, including blogging, into a rich learning experience. Blogging has transformed many of our homeschool lives, replacing the previous isolation with new online friendships and information exchanges we can tap into at any hour our busy schedules can find.

Edu-Blogging as a school activity isn’t such a new idea, especially as a homeschool project, but I’d like tell you about a blogging activity for your homeschool from a different perspective– an entrepreneurial-mindset learning perspective.

What Is “The Entrepreneurial Mindset”?

If you’ve read much from our website, Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com, you will hear that phrase often. We define it as:

“The ability to recognize, strategize and create profitable solutions to problems, obstacles or deficits in the marketplace.”

Not to be confused with ‘habitual entrepreneurs’ that often create businesses on a whim, and are key contributors to the rising new business failure rate. As educators, we emphasize the word “profitable” and make note of the three distinct steps to the ‘profitable solutions’: Recognize, Strategize, Create.

Teaching the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) is rarely absorbed in one big dose, but in consistent exposure as your child grows and matures.  Historically, the EM has not been taught in schools (of any kind), although that is changing rapidly due to the realization of the importance of small business in any economy. So don’t feel bad, mom, if you are learning the entrepreneurial mindset along with your children, you’re not alone!

Edu-Blogging With Purpose

While every blog in essence has some purpose (in theory), it often turns out similar to our children’s essays or stories written without an outline…random, disorganized and lacking a central theme.  Starting a blog to accomplish a purpose is much different from the routine blog or journal creation recommended in most English workbooks. While it could be a diary of what is done each day in your homeschool, every step of the way there is an underlying thesis that you will continually relate back to:

“What about this information/blog post would make it useful to someone else that doesn’t know me?”

As a part of introducing the entrepreneurial mindset, it starts with the ability to recognize needs and building creative solutions to those needs. Instead of randomly recording your day to day activities, approaching it from a value added angle trains their mind to see, and create, what could have meaning or value to someone else. It could be valuable to someone contemplating moving from public school to homeschool, or someone that’s had a tough time understanding photosynthesis, and you just finished a fun project that made it easy to understand.

How Young Can They Start?

This can be started as soon as they are capable of reasoning why you exchange money for items at the store. A pretty, polished rock is a great illustration that your child might have in their collection of stuff. Find a rough, ugly rock outside and ask if they would buy that rock. Probably not; but the pretty, polished rock is something they would buy, right? Help them understand that the added value is what gives the polished rock the advantage.

Which Is Worth More, Time Or Money?

Ok, by now you see how we’re digging down to how an edu-blog can have value. Once you’ve established a broad base of understanding why some things sell for more than others and why, then you might want to add that time is more valuable to many people than money.

Then ask them what kinds of information online is worth more to them and why. (Social sites and gaming sites excluded). If they have a tough time thinking of an answer, ask them this: If you didn’t have any books, TV, or anyone to teach you how to do anything, what would you look up online? What do you think your friends, relatives, or neighbors would want (or need) to know?

Naturally, there is no right or wrong answer, just keep your purpose of teaching them to see a need at the forefront of your mind.

Choosing a Blog Topic

If they are younger, it’s simple enough to take pictures of finished crafts and projects, with lots of help from you extracting their thoughts on what they think other kids like them would like to know about. Be sure to include plenty of pictures and instructions. This is a NEAT way to archive all those creations, too!

Older students might want to review their favorite movies, TV shows, books, games, etc – again, complete with pictures. Hobbies with how-to’s, opinions, and sources of supplies always make great blogs with unlimited potential. How do these ideas fill a need? It gives others with similar interests great ideas!

The most important part of this blogging project is to be continually asking the question:

“What about this information/blog post would make it useful to someone else that doesn’t know me?”

Like an over-advertised, fancy cereal box, how the information is presented will draw people to your site; but if it’s bland and flavorless inside, they won’t be back. Understanding the way this works and helping them create something that others find valuable is training their minds to think entrepreneurially. It’s an lifetime ability that will enable them to serve more skillfully in both the Kingdom of God and the workplace.

Make It a Family Affair!

If you’re at a loss for an idea for this blogging adventure, make it a family brainstorm activity. Make a list of interesting ideas, activities, and even skills you have that others might want to know about. Try to gather as many opinions as you can, the more input, the better! If it’s something you do as a family, then takes turns submitting posts to the blog.

One great example is from a very entrepreneurial family that homeschools in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, VA area. Anna’s blog is at GardeningForMyFamily.blogspot.com. The simplicity of her blog adds to it’s beauty– there are many pictures, and it has purpose. She links to other worthwhile and interesting sites, which is another value-added concept to weave into your project. Helping others succeed is often cited as a top business builders tip, but more importantly, it’s also God’s command to us as Christians. Remember, one of the main reasons you want to teach your children the entrepreneurial mindset NOW is to inextricably infuse character into their life, business and work practice.

Blogs Are Easy To Start

For those of you that aren’t sure how to start a blog, it is very easy and costs nothing to start. I highly recommend HomeschoolBlogger.com, which is run by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for homeschool families. Blogspot.com and Wordpress.com are two others that are easy to learn and free to start.

A Call For Blogs!

If you have an edu-blog already that even remotely fits the description above, please let us know! We’d like to start a directory/list of useful blogs FOR homeschoolers BY homeschoolers! If you’d like, we’ll even ‘Twitter” your blog to others. Email us at- Blogs@Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com. Thanks!

Bob & Debbie Maubach live in middle T and have been homeschooling for 20 years. With three of four of their ‘entrepreneurs’ graduated (all homeschooled, of course!), they are now spending more time helping other homeschoolers make home business a fun and profitable part of their homeschool. You can read more about them at their website, www.Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com.

Tags: adding value, blogging with purpose, blogspot.com, child entrepreneurs, choosing a topic, Entrepreneurial Mindset, family blogs, homeschool blogs, Homeschool Projects, homeschoolblogger.com, wordpress.com

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