My youngest son, Lewis, is just starting his fifth year at school. He's a bit like his dad was at school – keen on sport, disorganised and with a pathological aversion to study.

A couple of weeks ago he agreed to let me help him set up a study blog – I first saw this idea on one of
Ewan's posts – Lewis wasn't at all convinced that there was any merit in the idea but if it would keep me quiet he was up for anything.

We went to wordpress and set up a blog format that he liked. We then set up categories which matched all the subjects he is taking. Since the beginning of term we've spent half and hour a night putting together his blog. He takes a subject a night and puts together notes from each subject. Rather than copying out notes verbatim he uses hyperlinks.

The surprising thing is that he is enjoying the experience – I was amazed to hear that he had told some of his friends at school who now want to try the same thing.

For the first time in his life he has all his notes in one place – as opposed to being all over his bedroom floor. We set up sub-categories for each subject which will enable him to call up notes for each topic. Obviously the test will come when he starts to access the information for assessments, etc.

I hope to gradually withdraw from the process but he seems to like having me with him just now. Over the next few weeks I'd like to try to get him to comment on his notes and engage with the information by offering his own reflections – but I think this might be a while away.

I won't put up a link to his site as he deserves some privacy but I will keep you posted on progress. If you have any suggestions about how he could make good use of this process to assist his learning I'd appreciate hearing from you.

His brother – who starts Edinburgh Universioty in two weeks now wants me to set up something similar for him.

Is there something in this? – particularly for boys?