"I don't want to write a report." One of the problems homeschoolers face is that it's hard to get motivated to do well-written, well-edited writing when no one but Mom will be reading it. Giving your child a personal web page is one solution to this problem. Creating the web page, and, if they're old enough, learning html, can be an elective, technology, or occupational class for those legal records you have to keep.)
When my teenager was reluctant to write the long list of papers required for her composition class, I suggested she write most of them on basketball, and post them on her web page. She was a little doubtful, but at least basketball was fun to write about. Her page features the American Basketball League, a woman's professional basketball league. Her first paper was a comparison and contrast of this league and the other women's league, the WNBA. To her surprise, as soon as it was posted, she started getting feedback on it in her guest book and in her e-mail. College students and adults complimented her writing, and a few even suggested she consider a writing career. Others critiqued her arguments. One man pointed out a circular argument we had missed. When my daughter realized her paper was being seriously read, she went back and re-edited it. Her other papers are being written much more carefully, now that she knows people are really reading. More importantly, her articles led to professional publication and an invitation to cover try-outs for the WNBA.
It seems like every homeschooler in America has a homepage these days. Many of them are tied to the work they do at school. Others are tied to hobbies. Very soon, though, children who spend much time surfing learn that spelling counts. My kids notice that bulletin board writers with poor skills are made fun of or not listened to. When they work on their pages, they want their spelling checked. Good pages require good writing.
School related pages don't have to be full of reports. One of my children once made a pioneer page, because she loves pioneers. She included book reports of her favorite pioneer books, quizzes, and fun facts. She wrote a few pioneer stories as well, and included her pioneer art. By the time she finished her page, she had incorporated most of her school subjects, and she didn't even know it. My son once had a page on Star Wars, which doesn't sound very educational, but he included the books he reads that are based on the program. He has added some science reports and historical time travel stories. I seldom allow my children to work on their pages during school, so they think of it as a hobby, but they're researching, writing, reading, and drawing in their free time.
You don't have to be a computer genius to make a home page. Many programs, including WordPerfect and Word, let you type in your material, and they do all the programming for you. Most kids, however, take to html easily, and will be real webmasters in no time. Then they can do your page for you. (My teenager started mine. I saw another homeschool page that credited a nine-year-old as the html expert.)
If your children make homepages, let me know. I love visiting homeschoolers' pages. Good luck!