Goal Cards - Teaching and Accountability

The title of this blog post sounds VERY Serious!! It's not. 😁

One thing that's true, is that we want to teach our children to take control of their school work and chores. As a mom and teacher, this means that not only do I teach them HOW, I also give them the tools they need. 

For moms using ACE or Accelerated Christian Education at home, the goal cards are great. I enjoy being able to reuse them by laminating them. I also LOVE to add a little color to life. I love seasonal goal cards. 

One benefit of the goal cards is that the students can set their own daily work goals. While this doesn't seem important, it REALLY is. I can't tell you how my daughter's ability to organize her day and get her school work done has helped her. She's a gymnast and spends about 12 hours a week at the gym.  She goes 4 days a week for 3 hours. This doesn't include the exercising and drills she does at home. This keeps her very busy. The goal cards help her to hold HERSELF accountable. That's the goal!! Not that we're standing over them but that they track themselves. Rather than being the one to nag her, she keeps track. I simply ask her what she has to get done that day. 

This is the same for any parent or family. No matter what school choice, curriculum or educational decisions you've made, teaching our children to be responsible and to hold themselves accountable is one of the main goals. 

I created these colorful goal cards for parents who use ACE. You could probably use these with many curriculums. I've created one for boys and one for girls. 

I usually print mine out and laminate them. You could also use a dry erase sleeve OR page protector. I find that laminating them keeps them in good shape for a long time. I or my children use a sharpie to write down the pages/work for the day. At the end of the week, I simply wipe it with some alcohol and it takes off ALL the sharpie.
I plan on creating more with seasonal themes...Fall, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas. You might want to college the files and print them out. If you laminate two of them, back-to-back, you save on some laminating sheets and your student can simply flip them over and pick out the theme they want for the week.

**You'll also notice that I Do NOT put my website or name on these documents. Usually, when you download documents there is a watermark, etc on the document. I've chosen not to do that. I only ask that you DO NOT Share these documents. Please send your friends and family here to this link. This helps me keep track of downloads and helps with advertising. 

**If you like to create your own documents, I downloaded many of these graphics from Chantahlia Design for free. Please visit her site and show her some support.

Nothing makes school more fun than Robots!!! Click Here to Download! 

Sweet pastels!!! Girly and fun!!! Click here to download!!!

Enjoy and God Bless,
Laura

Creating checklists.....

We want our children to be independent. We want them to get their work done without having to tell them. 

Isn't that a little fantasy we all have?? I know I STILL need a reminder for some things that have to get done. I love making lists. These help me to stay organized and accountable. I make lists for my children. I love to create bright colorful lists for them. 

Lists help them to stay accountable to themselves!! They have the list. I even did this with chores. You know how you send your child to clean a room, then they come back and you begin to question them?? "Did you wipe your furniture?" Did you clean UNDER your bed?" Did you pick up ALL your dirty clothes?" That drove me nuts! I decided to put it all on a check list. This way, if they checked it, then it means that they did it!! 

One side has their morning and evening routines and the other has zone cleaning or room cleaning. I personalized them . Now my 10 y/o daughter knows what she needs to do in the morning. I find that she uses hers less and less, but on big cleaning days, we still use our zone cleaning. It keeps me from having to ask the same questions over and over again. 

I decided that since I love to create lists, laminate them and use them, other mom's might as well?? I can't possibly use all the lists that I create, so I decided to just make them available to those mom's who can use them. For free!! That's right!!! You just download and use them. I just ask that you NOT Share them directly and that you send other mom's to my website. 

This year we're using Classical Conversations. I decided to create a foundations check list. A list to check off for your weekly memory work. Younger foundations students will enjoy it!! Print it out, laminate , or slip into a dry erase pocket OR page protector. Use a dry erase and let your younger students mark off their completed memory lessons. It's a great way to start some independent accountability. Just click on the link. 

Weekly Foundations Checklist 

If you have any suggestions for other printables, please leave them in the comments section. 

Many of the graphics I used on these were from Chantahlia design's. . Please visit her site if you like to create your own printables. 

Many blessings, 

Laura