Just wanted to share a quick suggestion my husband made during our weekly planning meeting on Sunday. He interviews the children regularly and asks them about what they have learned. To help him in this discussion, he recommended I make a chart where the children could keep track of what they did each day. So (after some grumbling ; ) I made an Excel spreadsheet titled "This is What I Did Today!" with 3 columns with the headings--date, subject, and activity.
Wow, I can't tell you how that simple spreadsheet has enhanced our home school! It helps me to remember to follow-up with them at the end of the day and they proudly show me all of their work (previously I didn't have a system to encourage accountability). The children are more excited to do their different activities (even hard ones!) because they know Dad is going to ask them about it. Recording their progress each day sets good habits that will benefit them especially when they want to go to college and have to prove their home school achievements and studies. The spreadsheet goes in the front of their binder.
Thanks honey for the great idea! What do you do at home to encourage accountability? I would love to hear your comments.
How do I help encourage accountability? I think the tactic in our home has been mostly in our language to them. How we word our reactions to their choices is vital. Always emphasizing that they are making the choice and they are accepting the consequences - good or bad. Also pointing out as much as possible that they are making decisions all the time. We give our children a great deal of responsibility as far as making choices for their lives. Some parents would disagree with that kind of parenting, but I think it's made our children feel more empowered and more accepting of the results to their decisions.
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