I've been reading and researching a great deal lately about a style of Eclectic Education called 'Leadership Education'.  I purchased a set of E-Books by Kerry Beck and have been pouring through them to gain my own understanding of what Leadership Education is and how it can be put into effect in our own homeschool.  Here are some things I have discovered.

Leadership Education is an eclectic style of education which uses teaching methods commonly employed in Charlotte Mason, Christian Classical and the Unit Study methods. 

There are three steps/phases in Leadership Education (LE)

1.  Model/Nurture  You must yourself model the behaviour & values you expect to grow in your children. This includes character traits, your walk with Christ, your desire to learn.  If your kids see you reading and learning and enjoying it, they will too!  If they see you neglecting your walk, your communion with God, they will too!  Every parent is a role model for their children.  Are we positive or negative role models?  It's never too late to start.

2.  Teach/Equip  As well as modelling attitudes, values and behaviours, we must teach them certain things for a productive life.  Life skills, Academics and Goal setting are important things we can teach them.

3.  Coach/develop.  We must learn to listen to our children and their ideas.  We should tailor a great deal of their studies to their own interests (Interest led Unit Studies) so that they learn to love learning and are interested in what they are doing.  As well as interest led studies, there should be a certain amount of 'Required' studies in our homeschool.  These studies are non-negotiable and should be decided upon my the parents as necessary for their family.  That may cover things like, Bible study, Math, Grammar etc.  We should develop a  plan for personal growth for our children, as well as modelling our own personal growth plan for ourselves.  Set goals for things we want to achieve and work toward them, and teach the kids to do the same.

There are certain steps to undertake in LE.

1.  Character development should come first.  Assess character traits in your child and work on the ones which need attention, before Academics.  Ways we can do this would be to focus on a Character trait for a specified time period, say one month.  Memorise relevant Bible passage/s for that trait.  Give practical application for that trait ie: if it's responsibility, give the child skill appropriate, responsible tasks.  Use a reward chart to reward when the child demonstrates this trait.  I think a reward system even works for Teens.  The rewards are just different than for little ones.  I know it works for our girl !

Academics should wait until the character traits have been addressed.  If the child is older then focus on the Character traits first and Academics after that each day.

There's lots more to be learned and written about this subject.  So more later.

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Posted by Testimony

This entry is great. I truly learned a lot from this article. Please write more. It is hard when entries are too long, but I was verrrrry interested in what you have to say.
Thank you!

Karen
www.homeschoolbogger.com/testimony

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