5 Reasons Why You Should Make Your Child A Website

The world from a child's perspective is more colourful and interesting than we can imagine. Their innate curiosity often leads to exciting discoveries and observations that, sometimes, can leave an adult speechless.

Until a few decades ago, a child's creative expression or ideas were recorded in books, scrapbooks or photo albums, and proudly displayed to neighbours and relatives. With the advent of the Internet, that has changed drastically. A child sitting in Madurai can reach out to his fans in Sydney, Australia, and talk about his latest masterpiece. A parent can submit his child's latest article to an international writing contest. The world has, literally, become a stage where you can present your creative thoughts or work for everyone to see. This is the power of the Internet. And if you think your child has a talent that should be nurtured and encouraged, the digital tools will help you do just that. Building a website for him is one such way to help him showcase his talents.

Here are five top reasons you should build your child a website:

1. Builds a portfolio

If your child is creative and likes to draw, dance or write, making a website will help her build a portfolio that can be shared instantly, whenever needed. It will also help her keep a track of how she's evolved over the years and what areas she needs to work on.

Moreover, she could inspire other children to showcase their talents and build a good online support system.

2. Helps your child stand out

Having an online portfolio gives your child a certain edge over her peers. His talent could be showcased to a bigger audience and he will also have instant access to feedback from a larger group of individuals. Remember, that popular singer Justin Bieber was discovered through his Youtube videos at the age of 13.

3. Encourages creativity

Having a website is like having an exclusive space just for yourself. Your child would have the space to share her ideas and thoughts with the world and develop them in the process by discussing them with individuals across all sections around the world. This again could help your child discover like-minded peers who are interested in pursuing similar ideas.

4. Makes them tech-savvy

Building and maintaining a website requires you to have basic computer and coding skills. As he develops his website to showcase his work and thoughts in a more creative manner, he will acquire these skills along the way and learn more about the inner working of the digital and the social media worlds. This knowledge will help him in the long run.

5. Gives them a platform

Building an audience or a fan base, can often take years. So, having a website at a young age will give your child a head start to build a bigger network of followers. Moreover, she can constantly gauge whether is work is being received well or not.

However, before you build your child a website, you should keep a few points in mind. Here are some of them.

Key features your child's website must have:

1. Easy to use: Children should be able to easily understand how to use the website, so that it's not an added burden or a frustrating experience, as maintaining the website is more of a secondary task. Their primary task is to share their work and ideas.
   
2. Easy to monitor: Children need the help of their parents in life to succeed, and definitely need their support when it comes to interacting with strangers on the Internet. So, their website should be easy to monitor.
   
3. Easy to connect: To promote and showcase your child's talent, you need the help of social media. So, make sure the website is connected to all major social media platforms.

Once you have helped your child build the website of her dreams, here are some things you need to look out for, to help her have an enriching experience.

What to watch out for

• If your child's website has a high following, he'll also be subject to more scrutiny and feedback. At times, these feedback can be negative and contradictory in nature and can overwhelm him. Help him understand how he can incorporate the useful feedback and let go of the negativity.
  
• Don't allow comments to be posted on the website before they have been approved by you. This way you can screen the comments and get rid of inappropriate comments so that your child does not have negative online encounters.
  
• Make sure your child always gets your approval before publishing anything, so she doesn't post anything inappropriate or share confidential data with anyone on the Internet.
  
• If you are sharing his work on social media platforms, be aware of his followers and friends as cyberstalking is one of the biggest concerns for the digital citizens of today.
  

At the end of the day, there are pros and cons to using the Internet to nurture your child's talents. But, with adequate supervision and awareness, it is one of the best tools to help your child become an individual everyone respects, and aspires to become.

About the author:

Written by Jasmine Kaur on 20 July 2018.

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