This is especially for the homeschool moms, but really all of them, and dads as well.
In the welcome threads there are a lot of people who join and want some attention, but not a ton of people who welcome them. It honestly seems like a good job for a young person, and I wanted to suggest that you work it into your children's curriculum, or as some extra writing practice if they go to a traditional school. I wasn't thinking just having them type "hi, welcome to the site"; I'm suggesting that they look at the person's profile and think about what would be a good welcome for that specific person, such as a picture to post, a specific greeting, or even a font or color to use that ties in with the person's screen name. I try to do this myself, but I find myself constantly thinking "I would have loved doing this when I was a teenager and had more free time".
I realize that safety concerns are an issue, especially with younger teens, and I know that there is a lower limit of 13 years old, I believe, to join the site. However, the young person can set up the account so that he/she is unable to receive private forum mail messages from users not on his/her friends list. That feature doesn't work in the chat rooms, though, just so you'll know.
In the welcome threads there are a lot of people who join and want some attention, but not a ton of people who welcome them. It honestly seems like a good job for a young person, and I wanted to suggest that you work it into your children's curriculum, or as some extra writing practice if they go to a traditional school. I wasn't thinking just having them type "hi, welcome to the site"; I'm suggesting that they look at the person's profile and think about what would be a good welcome for that specific person, such as a picture to post, a specific greeting, or even a font or color to use that ties in with the person's screen name. I try to do this myself, but I find myself constantly thinking "I would have loved doing this when I was a teenager and had more free time".
I realize that safety concerns are an issue, especially with younger teens, and I know that there is a lower limit of 13 years old, I believe, to join the site. However, the young person can set up the account so that he/she is unable to receive private forum mail messages from users not on his/her friends list. That feature doesn't work in the chat rooms, though, just so you'll know.
