Balancing Freedom and Accountability

 One of the simple joys I find in life is seeing how my kid initiates learning or doing her tasks without any prompts or nudges. On the hindsight, this simple thing is not really just a product of on day's work. It is a result of consistent habit formation. Throughout our homeschooling journey, I have learned that we should always choose the path of least resistance. That has been how we set a positive learning atmosphere in our house. Yes, there are assignments, there are tasks that need to be done, there are targets, there are deadlines, etc. But there is so much freedom as well.  In our family, we value accountability as much as our freedom. It is a very challenging thing to blance. Give too much value for accountability and responsibility and the kid would feel too taxed and restricted. She would feel she has no more time for play and enjoyment. And that's a quick way of feeling burnout and losing interest in learning. On the other hand, if you give too much freedom, the kid might end up too entitled amd irresponsible. It is a very easy thing to lose interest in studying becausw one is having too much fum doing other things. She has at one point forgotten to do her assignments because she was too busy playing with her toys. This bad habit, once formed, would not be very easy to remove. So I find a sweet spot. Where she has time to enjoy non-school work, but still has enough for her deliverables. I learned never to force her into doing things because I avoid friction as much as possible. But I make sure that she faces consequences when she is unable to deliver. It is a matter of knowing your kid deeply. Learn about her inner motivations, introduce new hobbies to her so she can have a variety of choices, also, so you can truly see which one she is really most interested of.  Yesterday, she woke up and as soon as she cleaned her bed, she went straight to her crafts box and picked up her embroidery set. There were no prompts on my end, I did not instruct her whatsoever. She was just excited to learn the stitches. And I just let her be. It's not our study time yet anyway. She usually picks up a book and hang out with the cats in the morning. But yesterday, she tried something new. And that makes me so happy.