How You Can Use Blogging to Capture Your Children's Memories

Children grow like weeds and as parents, we have 18 years to remember them as children. Scrap booking, photography, and journaling are commonly the top choices for holding on to the precious memories of our children. Each activity has proven to be a great way to encapsulate the tiny window called childhood. However, each poses a set of drawbacks. For instance, scrap booking is costly, time consuming and caters to the very crafty. Photography requires an acquired skill and if pursued the purchase of special, often expensive, camera equipment. Journaling, the most cost efficient of the three, is easy to achieve if you enjoy writing, but poses another conundrum. How do you preserve journals for later sharing with your children and loved ones?

Recently, I was introduced to blogs and the concept of blogging. What is a blog you ask? In simple terms, a blog is a website where entries also known as posts are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" is often used interchangeably with the term blogging as a verb, meaning to add new posts to an existing blog. The term is a portmanteau (a word that fuses two or more words or word parts together to give a combined meaning) of web log.

Instantly I was intrigued. How could I use a blog to capture the remaining years of my children's childhood? My research showed there are many companies like Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, and Blogstream that offer free blog services. All I needed was internet access, a working computer, and a valid email address. Within minutes, I too was blogging. For years, I had internet service with AOL and did not realize that they provided free blogging services as well.

So what do you need to do to capture memories of your children? First, cover the basics - computer, internet access, and email address (many of which are free through Yahoo! or MSN.)

1. Find a blog service that you are comfortable with. Then start having fun!

2. Create a fun blog name that reflects the personality of your child.