Leadership Education: Raising Leaders, Not Followers

Published:
February 15, 2021

Abby Banks

Contributor:
Abby Banks

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Many of us in the homeschool trenches would agree that one of our main goals in training up our children is leadership education. In other words, we want them to be leaders and not simply follow the crowd. What are the components that go into that type of leadership education? Here are the skills to focus on and where you can find resources to help.

man on mountaintop

Foundations of Leadership Education

Raising leaders starts with a biblical framework and giving our kids good examples to follow. So, it starts with us – homeschool parents. This can feel like a huge undertaking! But by acknowledging that our homeschool is not just about the content areas, but about building godly character and leadership, we’ve started on the right track.

One other foundation to pay attention to is the aspect of allowing our kids to persevere through difficulty. Many times we want to shield our kids from real life consequences or failure. But learning to work through these hardships actually helps our kids grow as leaders!

Leaders Have Character

Leadership Education wouldn’t be complete without talking about character formation. And for Christian parents, this necessarily includes Bible teaching in our homes and homeschools.

But it doesn’t only include what we teach in our Bible lessons. A big part of character training is the natural discipleship that comes in a parent-child relationship. And this isn’t always positive character training, is it? Ouch!

Too many times, we model the wrong response to our children. This is true for all of us. But this situation also gives us the chance to model repentance and restoration of relationship.

It’s all necessary in raising leaders – we need to include the study and understanding of Scripture (Bible literacy) plus the formation of character in our homeschools.

Love of Learning

One of the main traits of the homeschooling movement is that we emphasize love of learning. We’re not all about checking off the boxes and just completing textbooks. What good would that do? That’s the realm of the traditional school system.

Rather, if our kids have learned to love learning and pursue learning over a lifetime, then we’ve been successful! After all, we’ll never be able to teach them absolutely everything they need to know. But if they have that natural curiosity encouraged in them as they grow, they will always have the tools they need to learn new skills.

One practical way to encourage a love of learning is to use the art of strewing. This is simply where you leave interesting books and items out for your children to discover naturally. You don’t call it “school” or require a book report at the end of the day. Instead, you cultivate beautiful and compelling things for your kids to encounter. Who knows what will grab their attention and ignite a new topic to explore?

This is what a passion-driven education looks like – and it’s easier than you think to get started!

Get Help with Leadership Education

If you want to explore these ideas in more depth, then you’ll love the Life Skills Leadership Summit, which you can attend online for FREE from February 22-26, 2021.

Here are some workshops in the summit that will give you details needed to implement the core parts of leadership education.

The What and How of Leadership Education, by Andrew Pudewa
Discover how you can use Leadership Education in your homeschool to give your kids freedom. Freedom to think for themselves and not follow the media or the politically correct. After discussing what Leadership Education is, Andrew gives practical tips to implement Leadership Education

Leadership: Taught or Caught? by Aimee Smith
Are leadership traits more likely to be taught to your children or caught by them? Both! As parents, you should be diligent to teach your children leadership skills and character qualities. Don’t underestimate, however, the potential for them to catch these skills and qualities simply by watching you. In this session, we will discuss 5 steps you can take as a parent to model leadership to your children. Leadership is both taught and caught!

Growing Independent Learners–Nurturing Our Kids in Each Season of Homeschooling! by Jennifer Merckling Homeschooling provides fertile ground for growing creative, independent, problems solvers! After 17 years of homeschooling, Jen is sharing her top tips for success in each season–the early elementary, middle grades, and high school years. Get encouragement and practical tools that you can use today!

These are just three examples of the nearly 60 sessions you can watch for free! You can grab a FREE pass to the summit or upgrade to the All Access Pass which gives you extra bonuses and goodies. Finish the year strong and start planning for next year. Focusing on leadership education in your homeschool will help you raise leaders and not just followers.

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