| Crossposted at dirt under my fingernails
Eva and Ian using the computer Eva bought with income from her book sales. Those sales have in part been made possible by her website.
These are legitimate conversations, and each person has to make these kinds of decisions based on their own comfort levels and according to the needs of the individual child. I know people who are aghast that my kids each have a website with their names attached. I know many others who don’t even blink about it.
The way I see it, there is risk in everything we do. We put our kids on school buses every daywithout seat belts. We let them play contact sports. We drive our cars on roads with thousands of other imperfect drivers (the legal license age here is just 14!!). We fly in planes. Heck, we get up in the morning. I figure you can get injured or killed just as easy staying safe at home as you can if you travel across the world. But personally, I would take the second, far more interesting option.
So yes, I let my kids have a presence on the internet – first and last name and everything. And though I’m sure there are risks involved, the benefits for us far outweigh them. Here are some of those benefits:
I’m going to be talking mainly about Eva’s online presence, because it is more fully developed than Ian’s is currently. Ian is still developing product for his site; once he has sheet music that bands can use, he’ll be able to connect with people in much the same way that Eva has. We are also still developing his website’s overall message and determining how it will best benefit other kids and musicians.
It Provides Real-Life Motivation for Quality Work
I talk a lot about doing away with grades for my kids’ work and instead providing the same types of motivational opportunities that drive adults. Kids aren’t so different from adults in that respect. Getting an “A” might feel good, but having your story published in a magazine feels better. Eva knows that her books aren’t just going to be filed in a cabinet, but read by dozens and dozens of people, many of whom she’ll never meet. Talk about motivation to produce quality work.