BLOGSURGE

What is the best age to be?

Talking to my 4 year old grandson last week I said wistfully 'I wish I was 4'. 'Why?' he asked. 'Because when you are 4 everything is new and exiting and you can play all day' I replied. He considered this for a moment and said 'Yep, it's great being 4'. It is amazing to see his enthusiasm for most things including writing, which as a male of the species, he is not meant to enjoy.

The children at Heathfield County Primary School in Bolton have found that they enjoy writing blogs, particularly the boys. Many of the young children attending that school, interviewed by the BBC, said 'we like writing blogs because we can write about anything'. Which is great. But why do they think that they can only write about 'anything' in a blog? Is it the wider audience that makes the writing more enjoyable? Or the permanence of the blogs? How wonderful that these children will be able to access and share their early writing with friends and family as they grow up. They all reported that they liked to get comments on what they have written from friends, relatives and teachers and this was also a factor in their keenness to write blogs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12448932
My daughter, a grown woman in her twenties, is having to write, as part of her college course, essays. For months now she has been producing essays of 2000/3000 words but her latest assignment is to write a 'story' about anything she wants. What I would see as an enjoyable challenge she sees as a chore. 'I would much rather they gave me a theme to write about or question to answer'. As for blogging she thinks that it is an oddity I indulge in and is yet to read Rat Diary. Maybe I should suggest she blogs about my grandson and call it 'Little Man - observations on the world by a child.'
Do I blog about 'anything'?
Of course not. I want my children and grandchildren to read my blog one day so I do self censor- not much granted but certainly to some extent - but the need to write about 'anything' doesn't go away if you are a diarist. So there are things that get written in a beautifully bound journal that will one day be disposed off. It's just a good feeling to turn those private thoughts into words. No, it's more than a good feeling... it's a compulsion.

Hence BLOGSURGE  - Blog - surge - urge.