BLOG helps family stay connected

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/neighbours/story.html?id=34750188-85ea-4034-992b-196ce874139e


Jennifer McDougall, For NeighboursPublished: Thursday, January 24, 2008

When Phil and Heather St. Louis were matched with an Australian couple through the Alberta Education teacher exchange program, the whole family was excited. Yet, Heather's mom Kay Hudson would miss watching her grandchildren grow and develop.
"A whole year seemed so long for them to be away . . . we thought we'd only be able to imagine their surroundings and day-to-day activities."
Keen to have folks back home join in the Aussie adventure, Heather launched a blog to entertain them with details and breathtaking photography of their temporary home and the many side trips to places such as Great Barrier Reef.
Hudson became an avid reader, checking every morning for new posts. "We didn't know what to expect . . . we thought the blog would be more or less another version of e-mail. We were amazed at how everything came alive."
The blog also chronicled daily rituals -- driving, shopping, birthday parties, local foods and words, a broken leg, and some loose teeth. Heather's daughters shared their thoughts on things only kids understand, like the first day of school.
"On the way to class we saw a bunch of Preppies (kindergarteners), you can tell them apart from the rest of the school by their gold hats," Julia wrote last January. "Everyone else has blue. Well, it turns out we couldn't find our class and had to go to the office for help. When I walked into class my teacher introduced me and everyone was like, 'Do you have the accent? I love your accent!
'Say something!' It was strange. LOTE (Languages Other Than English) was confusing, though, because all of a sudden everyone started speaking Japanese."
Ten-year-old Rebecca told of a new sport she discovered in a piece titled Netball and her brothers watched while Mom loaded photos of new friends.
Phil says blogging meant their experiences wouldn't be forced upon others. "Reading the blog was something people could elect to do; this was very appealing to us."
Former classmates and teachers visited the blog. Kelsey Wagner, a Calgary pal of Julia's, says the descriptions helped her learn about Australia, noting the Ayers Rock post as a favourite.
Heather remained connected with her friends this way as well. Kelsey's mom Paulette Wagner says, "We tried using Skype (software that allows for free calls over the Internet), but the time change made chatting difficult."
Regular blogging and commenting back was the answer. "I marvelled at how they would arrive home from a (side) trip and in no time have the post up."
Cindra Kennedy felt she explored Australia vicariously through her travelling friend's stories. "I felt like I was there with them because each post was so real. There was no artifice, no glossing over, no stretching the truth."
Heather strived to write positively. "I made a vow to never write anything negative . . . of course we had some low points, but the blog wasn't a place to talk about them."
The St. Louis' Brisbane neighbours were also reading.
"They enjoyed the take on their country by us Canadians. They laughed at some of the things I commented on, such as the wonky shopping carts which won't go straight, and said that they had never thought about it but it was so true."
This kind of feedback encouraged Heather and the comments her posts generated kept her motivated.
"I think 11,100 views," she says of the year-long traffic, "is amazing for our little piece of the web! I'm thrilled by it. But even if it was just a way to journal, and no one else read a word of what I wrote, it would all be worth it."
Besides having been most effective for keeping in touch, Australia 2007: One Year Down Under is now a lovely record of one family's incredible year. Heather plans to print the entire blog then bind a book for each of her children.
"I am proud that we have this reminder of all we did and saw and the incredible people we met . . . we will read those entries and look at those photos for the rest of our lives."



This article is about a teacher who moves to Australia with her family for a year to teach, but her parents’ fear they will miss their grandchildren growing up. So Heather creates a blog so her parents are able to learn what is going on in their family’s life and are still able to keep in contact and know what and how their grand children are doing while they are away. Blogging is amazing technology that can help keep family and friends in contact.

I like many other college students has a facebook, and not only is it to keep in contact with my friends here and back home, I also keep in contact with my mum and dad (who both have facebooks) as well as my cousins, aunt and uncles who live in England and Ireland. It is a great way to stay in contact. Blogging can be use to inform others as well as so many other things. I think blogging is a new and more “high-tec” way to keep your family updated with what is going on with your life, especially with being away at college.