Are you struggling with irresponsibility in your kids? You need these effective strategies to teach your homeschooler responsibility.
When you choose to homeschool, you hear a lot of objections to your choice. One common objection is, “How will your child learn responsibility if they don’t have homework to keep track of?”
The good news is there are a lot better ways to teach your children to be responsible than to give them homework and have them drag it back and forth every day. These ideas will help you teach your homeschooler responsibility.
Provide Your Child with Their Own Planner
Schools use agendas to teach children to be organized and improve communication between school and home. As a homeschool family, you can use a planner to help teach your child to be organized and help them learn to be responsible with their time.
Help your child fill in important dates and obligations they need to meet, and use the planner to show them how to keep up with the things they need to do each day.
For bigger things that have a deadline, use the planner to help them learn how to break tasks down to get them done ahead of time. This is a great way to teach them how to not procrastinate when they need to do something. Procrastination leads to stress and can make life harder. Cutting this bad habit young will help your child be a responsible adult.
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Give Your Child Chores
Chores are a great way to teach your child responsibility and give them a sense of purpose in helping the family. Assigning your child chores and sticking to them teaches them to follow through with responsibilities.
Give your child chores that both involve their own personal space as well as ones that contribute to the entire family. Change chores often to give your child the opportunity to learn many different skills they will need one day in their own homes.
Use a simple zone system. Divide your house into as many zones as you have kids. Then list out three to five duties within each zone and alternate each week which zone they are responsible for keeping tidy.
Our Chore System (3 kids/3 zones)
Zone 1 – Downstairs Floors/Main Living Area
1- Vacuum Daily (we have a dog that sheds big time)
2- Keep the entrance of the house clean (shoes/bags/coats, it’s a hot drop zone)
3- Keep the living room decluttered and clean
4- Dust the living room (2x a week)
5- Feed and Water the Dog
Zone 2 – Kitchen
1- Empty/Load the dishwasher and hand wash dishes that can’t go in the dishwasher
2- Declutter Counters
3- Wipe Down Counters (3x daily after meals)
4- Set/Clear table for dinner
Zone 3 – Upstairs/All Bathrooms including Half Bath Downstairs
1- Vacuum upstairs Wednesday & Sunday
2- Change Bathroom Garbage as needed
3- Wipe Down Counters & Sinks (once a day)
4- Declutter
5- Keep Toilet Paper Stocked up in Cupboard
Check chores regularly to ensure they are being done, and take advantage of opportunities to teach your child how to do them better. Print out a good chore chart to help keep track.
Get a Family Pet
Pets need care to thrive. This means children with pets to care for learn to be responsible for another living thing. Your child will need reminders and help to fully provide quality care for a pet, but the end result is well worth the work for parents.
Your pet can teach your child that being responsible is worth the effort as it is rewarded with love and affection from the animal. Make animal care part of your child’s chores. Check that they are being done to ensure your pet does not come to any harm.
A Garden is a Safe Bet
If a pet is not quite the fit for your family, teaching your kids to garden is a great option for teaching your homeschooler responsibility. So, if you do not care for a garden, it will die off, so your child can see the direct result of not being responsible.
Unlike with a pet, you can allow your child to fail on this one without harming anyone. Therefore this is perfect if you need something with natural consequences to help teach your child.
Teaching responsibility to your homeschooler should become a natural part of your household. Add in a little more as they grow. As they get older, give them more responsibility.
All you need is a plan, along with the determination to see it through. Because kids are naturally drawn to a routine. Therefore, figure out what your natural family routine is, and you will have all the tools to teach your homeschooler responsibility.
How do you teach your homeschooler responsibility?
