Family project: How to make a website for kids

Remember back in the day when your mom used to sit you down in front of the TV with a box of Nilla Wafers and some fruit punch and call it a day? Thankfully, the days of passive parenting went out of style along with Farrah hair and bellbottoms.

Nowadays, we know how important it is to spend quality time with these tiny humans, and teach them things that will help them kick butt in the future.

One project you and your kids can do together that is creative, fun and educational is make a website for kids together.

Creating a website teaches kids online responsibility

Real talk: these days everybody is online — young, old, and everybody in between.

Creating a website with your kids is a great way to teach them early how to use the Internet responsibly. It’s also a great learning tool for showing them what is and isn’t appropriate to post online, something that will carry over when they begin to use social media sites (and learn what a “selfie” is). Before you start creating a site, I suggest boning up on some Internet safety guidelines.

Dial up the creativity

When I was a kid, we had Lite Brite, Magna Doodle and that old standby, plain white paper, in which to channel our creativity. These days, kids have computers and iPads (do they still even make plain, white paper?) The opportunity to be creative is just as high, though.

Kids can upload their own photos to the site, or their drawings, or their written stories. The website is a vehicle for showcasing creative efforts, but the designing of the website itself is also an act of artistic expression. Your kids can decide everything from the background of the site, to images, to font types and sizes, to content.

There's no limit to website ideas

When it comes to deciding what your site is about, the sky is the limit. It can be about anything at all, like:

• Achievements. Show off soccer trophies, good grades on homework, volunteer efforts. A website is a great way to keep grandparents and other family members updated on news and accomplishments.

• Hobbies/interests. Knitting, drawing, motorbikes, dogs, books, One Direction — whatever floats your kid’s boat, a website is a great way for her to share her passion with the world.

• Travel. Does your family take a lot of trips? Posting images of vacation spots and travelogues will help your child remember where he’s been.

• Reviews. Future Roger Eberts can practice their thumbs upping and downing with online reviews of movies, TV shows, books, etc.

Creating a website isn't hard

Creating a website with your kids sounds like one of those impossible things, but it’s way easier than it sounds. If you can master Pinterest or Facebook, you can build a simple website.

There are tons of intuitive, drag-and-drop website builders out there that will host your kid’s website on the cheap, including Buildicus. If you’re looking to create something a bit more complex, like a website featuring a blog, you’ll want to check out a bigger name builder.

But if you’re looking for something very simple, we’d love to be the builder that gives you and your child the opportunity to create together. Best of all, you can try us free for 30 days, and free = awesome.

And send me links to your sites when you’re done. I’d love to see them!