With over two dozen  3^rd Option groups statewide, and some that define “accountability” as : “send in your fee and an attendance sheet once a year"

WHY ON EARTH SHOULD I SIGN UP WITH AN ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP THAT REQUIRES FACE-TO-FACE CHECKOFF MEETINGS?!?

If you are really doing your research before you begin homeschooling, you need to ask yourself this question.

WHAT IS ACCOUNTABILITY ANYWAY?

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Exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.                                    Hebrew 3:13

Exhort means:  to admonish, counsel, entreat, persuade, urge, encourage

Mutual Accountability:    being answerable to another person, by being honest with them and expecting them to be honest with you. As Adminstrator of Foothills and I homeschooling mom of 7 children, I have experienced exhortation FIRSTHAND. 

EVERYONE needs accountability.  It is hard enough to ALWAYS be honest with ourselves.  It HELPS to have someone else to ask those hard questions we are afraid of asking ourselves.

   Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.                                                                                                             Proverbs 27:17

To make it easier, I’ve listed the Pros and Cons of Face To Face Accountability, which I hope you will carefully consider.  Taking on the sole responsibility of your child’s education is a SERIOUS matter, and one that you should not take lightly.  You should also not take your accountability lightly.

PROS of Face to Face with Foothills:

• Immediate feedback on your homeschooling methods and goals—these are YOUR children, GOD’s blessings, YOUR life’s work. 
• College, tech school, and career counseling, the ins and outs of high school transcripts, and scholarship filing—mistakes are found frequently on transcripts-we catch the errors before the scholarship committee does.
• Help setting goals for your homeschooling—no family is perfect, no homeschool is perfect.  Life gets crazy-- busy sometimes.  It is easy to let things slip.  Before you know it, small short cuts can add up.  Knowing someone is going to look at our work keeps us on track.  That’s what accountability IS.
• Acknowledgement of your hard work as a parent and teacher.  A pat on the back, a ‘well done’ goes a long way to an overworked, unpaid homeschool mom who pours her love and time into her children.  Seeing you leave a checkoff re-energized and happy is a blessing to us!
• Sharing ideas and strategies for overcoming learning and behavioral challenges
• Encouragement and prayer regarding issues families face such as separation, divorce, and financial difficulties
• Foothills is a ministry, not a business.  We CARE about homeschooling.  We homeschool our own children.  We want to preserve homeschooling so that OUR CHILDREN can homeschool our GRANDCHILDREN.    Every  Foothills Volunteer is PASSIONATE about homeschooling.  We are in this FOR THE LONG HAUL.
• Encouragement and prayer regarding issues you will face with your children regarding spiritual and disciplinary problems, learning challenges, rebellion, unwillingness to persevere through difficult subjects, and unwillingness to do chores—you can’t get that from Facebook.
• Holding EACH OTHER accountable to homeschool diligently keeps us in favor with God AND Man (the state).  When we police ourselves, the state of SC has no reason to get involved.  Only another homeschooler will understand your methods and goals, and will support you. 
• EVERY effort is made to hold meetings at convenient dates, times, and locations, and to accomodate those who are too sick to attend or busy with a newborn or taking care of an elderly parent.
• Staying unified with a group that CARES about the future of homeschooling will increase our ability to make needed policy changes—or prevent unwanted changes from occurring.  We stay on top of political issues and laws affecting homeschoolers and will let you know if this affects your family—and what to do about it!
• We will GO TO BAT for you.  We can do this because to us, you are not just a name and address.  You are a family we know and care about and pray for.  We’ve SEEN your records, we’ve SEEN proof of your academic work. 
• Input from veteran homeschoolers on how to choose curriculum, how to make your curriculum work for you, and when to switch to another curriculum to suit best suit your child’s learning style
• Encouragement for large families
• Encouragement for families having to be a caretaker for an elderly/sick parent and how to make that work with your homeschooling
• Encouragement for pregnant homeschooling moms trying to ‘do it all’ and get ready for a new baby—we’ve been there and we know the challenges!
• Helping us to combat pride and apathy in our hearts by holding each other MUTUALLY accountable for our homeschools!

THE CONS of FACE TO FACE ACCOUNTABILITY WITH FOOTHILLS:

• You can’t just fill out a form, send it in and go on with your life.
• You’ll actually have to drive out to a church TWICE a year and wait for 30 minutes to have your records looked at
• You might be encouraged to tackle difficult subjects that your child doesn’t like (or that you don’t love teaching) with more gusto to get the job done in your child’s long term best interest.
• You’ll be encouraged to store your records at the end of the year for safekeeping
• Parents who do not teach their child will have a harder time getting by with educational neglect
• You can’t just pretend other people and homeschools don’t affect you—you’ll SEE that you are part of a larger community.  You may even meet someone you like that lives near you that your child can play with :)

Interested in Becoming a Member of Foothills, a 3rd Option Group Who Cares for you?

Click Above on our Membership Page, print out an application, and send it in!

Biblical Reasons for Accountability

Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.                                                                                                                                                       1 Thessalonians 5:11                                                        

Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.                                                                                             Ecclesiastes 4:13

1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

² Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

⁴ For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

⁵ Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

⁶ For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

⁷ Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.                                                                                                                                                                  Romans 13:1-7 (emphasis mine)

“From the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 

                                                                                                  Ephesians 4:16

And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.                                                                                                                                                                       Romans 15:14

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.                                                                                                                                                Proverbs 27:17

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1 Corinthians 10:23

 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.                                                                                                                                                                    Ephesians 4:29

And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.                                                                                                                                                                     2 Timothy 2:2

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.                                                                                             Colossians 3:16