Accountable Kids Review

Accountable Kids is one of best parenting tools I’ve ever run across.  I purchased a kit for each of my kids while still in America, though I haven’t started using it with my 3-year-old yet.  We’ve been using it for a little over a month now, and we are VERY happy with it.

Accountable Kids is a program that teaches children responsibility.  Not only are they responsible to do certain chores each day, but they are also held accountable for their actions.  So Accountable Kids can function both as a daily chores system and also a discipline tool.  One thing I love about Accountable Kids is that you can customize it to fit your own family’s needs.  The book has a lot of suggestions, but you can be creative and come up with your own ideas. 

Each child has his or her own board.  The boards have 5 pegs for hanging cards on, and you can decorate the boards anyway you like.  If you look at the website and some of the reviews, you can get a lot of ideas on how to personalize the boards.  I used letter stickers for my kids’ names, and then I let them add a few more stickers to make it more personal.  The stickers are easy to peel off, and the kids enjoyed getting to choose from my stash.

There are 4 phases in introducing Accountable Kids to your children.  The first phase is the Responsibility Reminder Cards and tickets.  Depending on your family preferences, you can select which chores (and how many) you want each child to complete each day.  We’ve introduced a certain number of chores based on the ages of our children, and we’ll add a few more as they get used to doing them.  There are morning chores, day chores, and evening chores. 

Chores can include certain things children should be responsible for anyway, such as brushing their teeth or putting away clothes.  You can add in other chores you wish them to complete daily, such as taking out the trash or collecting the mail.  The chores are printed on reminder cards, and there are even a few blank ones if you want to add some different ones. 

Children can earn one ticket for each set of chores, making it possible to earn 3 tickets per day.  Once the child understands what is expected for each task, it becomes his/her responsibility to complete chores neatly and promptly without having to be told.

What are tickets used for?  The parents decide, but it should be a privilege they normally would enjoy doing.  In our family each ticket is good for 30 minutes of computer time, Wii, or a movie.  This has been a huge blessing, as we no longer have the kids constantly begging to do those things, and their time is limited by how many tickets they have.  If they have no tickets, they don’t get to play or watch…period.  For our kids, this is a good motivation for earning tickets. 

Accountable Kids also works for discipline.  We established some rules for the kids.  Rule broken?  The child loses a ticket.  You still have to be consistent for this to work, and for me that’s the hardest part.  I’ve told my children that I should only have to tell them once to do something (or not to do something), and I do make sure they hear and clearly understand what it expected.  My 6-year-old has lost tickets a few times, but her behavior has already improved a lot.

Best Behavior cards are another way to work on a particular behavior or character trait.  They are used more sparingly, but you can award them when your child exhibits a particular trait or good deed (such as helping a sibling without being asked to).  The child is not allowed to request a Best Behavior card when he/she does something nice.  It is awarded at the parents’ discretion. 

Best Behavior cards can be used as tickets or used in a weekly drawing.  Again, each family can come up with their own ideas, but we’ve decided to follow a suggestion in the book and have a weekly drawing for a prize that the whole family can enjoy.  We’re still working on ideas, but it could include a family popcorn/movie night (not requiring tickets of course), a batch of home-baked cookies, a new game, etc.  The winning child gets to choose the activity or prize for the family. 

After so many days, we introduced the second phase.  This includes Date cards and Privilege Passes.  Date cards are sticker charts that, when filled, are good for a date with a parent.  Children earn stickers for date cards by completing an entire day’s chores (morning, day, evening).  A date is for that child only and is a wonderful opportunity for a child to have one-on-one time with a parent.  Our kids are more excited about the date cards than anything else.  They really do value personal time with us.  We are currently thinking up a list of dates the kids could choose from.  We won’t always be able to take them on date that costs money, so we’re making lists of free/low-cost dates.  Some of our ideas include a fast-food meal, trip for ice cream, time at the playground, bowling, bike-riding, and visiting a nearby farm park.  Dates can even be at home.  Our kids love for us to play with them, so Daddy playing cars with Isaac or Mommy playing dollhouse with Moriah is just as exciting to them as a date.

Privilege passes are given when you’re working on correcting a specific bad behavior.  They can be used to purchase special privileges that can’t be bought with regular tickets.  The privilege should be an incentive your child is willing to work for.  We haven’t used this yet.

The third phase involves adding in extra chores and Bonus Bucks.  Parents can choose extra chores each child can do, and it’s up to the child to complete the chores and earn the bucks.  Bonus Bucks can be traded in for money (or prizes if the child is too young to handle money).  Parents can decide how much Bonus Bucks are worth.  This part of the program opens up the door for learning different aspects of money management, which I feel is very important for my children.

The fourth phase involves the Family Forum and Quiet Time.  The Family Forum is just a weekly time when the parents and kids can sit down and discuss Accountable Kids, trade in the Bonus Bucks, and just spend time together.  I won’t go into Quiet Time in this post, but the book lists all kinds of benefits to having a time of rest and relaxing activity each day—for the whole family!

The book that comes with the Accountable Kids program is very well-written.  It explains each step in detail, giving reasons behind each component and also lots of ideas and advice.  At the end of the book, there is a question/answer section that addresses concerns or questions about the program, and there is also a very helpful appendix with several charts you can use.

Watch these videos to learn more:

When I purchased The Accountable Kids program, I went the cheapest route and bought the Basic Start Up Package which comes with the book, the Quick Start CD, and one child kit (board, cards, stickers).  I also ordered 2 additional child kits.  If I had it to do again, I’d probably pay extra to order the deluxe package, which includes a Family Forum Board for getting everyone involved in the family meeting and a Mini Board to hang all the unused cards on.  I keep misplacing the tickets, so the Mini Board would have helped a lot.

Now I’m going to make a little admission to you.  I realized after the first few weeks of using this program, that I need an Accountable Mom program.  No, they don’t have such a program, but I just may make myself some responsibility reminder cards.  Maybe I’m the only mom that feels this way, but I’m not as accountable and responsible as I’d like to be.  I feel that if I’m going to ask my children to be responsible, then I need to model that in my own actions.  I do take very good care of my kids, and I put a priority on homeschooling.  However, after school is over and the kids are playing in their rooms, I end up spending way too much time on the internet.  Not only are there other things I could be doing, but also it results in me sitting all day instead of getting any exercise.

I’ve decided to make cards of things I should be accomplishing each day (including devotion time, exercise, household work), and I will earn tickets same as the kids.  Tickets will be used for internet time, of course!  It means I will have to choose more carefully which websites I spend my time on.  It also means I will have more time to read a book, watch a movie, play with my kids, get more done around the house, work on a hobby…in other words, GET A LIFE!  It’s only fair that I do what I’m asking my kids to do…right? 

Accountable Kids has a blog...click HERE to see! They also have a facebook page: Accountable Kids Face Book Group

NOTE:  I am writing this review in order to receive a 50% rebate on my purchase, as stated on the Accountable Kids website (HERE).  I did not receive any free products, and I will not be paid additional money for writing this review.  I will only receive a 50% rebate on my purchase, which I paid full price for.  This review contains my personal, honest opinion of this product.  Even if this offer was not in effect, I would still give the same review.   I definitely would recommend Accountable Kids to anyone raising children.