Summer Vacation

Kyle has had a busy summer. He has done enough to give him content for his blog. We traveled to Louisiana for the summer, stopping in Washington D.C. for a short vacation on the way. In D.C. we were able to see most of the major sights. Kyle posted a short summary of our trip. With the post I asked him to write in organized paragraphs. This added extra stress to the task. Although he was happy with the results of the post, the time it took to complete it has soured him on writing. For his next post I will use video to get him motivated again.

While we were in Louisiana for two months Kyle managed just a single post on his stay there. There were many first for him in Louisiana (his first baseball game, his first time riding a tube), but he hasn't shown a desire to want to write about these activities. We did start a video on the weather, or the rain, in Louisiana. We will finish it here in the U.A.E., in order to contrast the wet conditions of Louisiana to the dry conditions of the U.A.E.

Kyle has started school again, which cuts down on the time he has to blog. But the hope is that in school he gains new motivation to blog. The desire to share his experiences with classmates can give him the motivation to do the extra work the blog requires. I will also be on the lookout for school projects that can be done online.

Time to Blog

We have had many opportunities for Kyle to write in his blog, but getting him to spend the time to write takes some subtle motivation. The geology post didn't make it to the blog. He enjoys writing about things that he does, like Sports Day, or topics related to what he is doing in school, like this pollution project. He recognizes the audience for these types of posts. He wants his teacher to see his projects, while he wants his friends to see what he has been doing.

We went to Bahrain this past weekend with the Al Ain Rugby Club, which gave us plenty of material for posts. I started by having him do a trip report. This report asks him to answer basic questions about his trip. I want him to answer in complete sentences, but he prefers answering in phrases. My requiring him to write complete answers means it takes him longer to finish a blog and makes it that much more of a task. I am trying to balance fun and production. The goal is for him to enjoy writing and to see life as a learning experience.

I hope to use the Bahrain trip to get him to do research on Bahrain, but based on his answers to the trip questions it seems like his interest in Bahrain revolves around rugby. We did see an amazing fort, Bahrain Fort, that is on land that has been inhabited since 2300 B.C. I hope that I can get him to write about our visit there, a country profile for geography would be a nice start. At least I would like him to narrate the video we recorded, although this requires more time on my part. We can easily find time for exploring, but struggle to make time for the reporting. In January we did numerous things worth reporting on: we went to the Philippines; he played in a rugby tournament; and we went to the Al Ain Air Show.