The Headgate

I recently read a marvelous ebook which I mentioned in a previous post. The book is called The Headgate and it is by Brian and Keri Tibbets. This is all about applying Leadership Education. A lot of things were not new for me and we've been applying, but some I knew but didn't know how to apply and yet others were totally new, but they give me warm fuzzies and I just know it's the good stuff. (Anything that says crafting is only creating "little junks that only a mother could love" is going to be a bestseller here in my house).

Here are some some highlights from it that I wanted to share.

"The longer we home school our children we have noticed our home school becoming more a like a home than a school. In fact is has come to the point that there is now no school left in it at all. It is just a home. There is no part in our daily schedule that resembles school and there is no place in our home where school supplies are to be found. "

In order to create such a home and rear children in a classical education an environment needs to be created where children can grow and where they can become who there were born to be. Children in core phase work on mastering values and in their free time they play. Love of learners work on mastering the 3 R's and choose to spend part or all of their free time learning. The scholar with master subjects and spend all their time studying. (This is true! Our children follow this like it's scripted. It is so natural).

Now on to creating that environment. I hope in all that free time I have (harhar) to write more in depth essays on some of the ones that have been profound for us.

1. Create a House of Order
Order in the relationships. Dad provides for the family. Mom nurtures the children. Our society and communities have this so messed up.
Order in the appearance. How orderly are our houses? Are they filled with clutter?
Order in the schedule. Children feel secure knowing what the day will bring and their basic needs will be met. When families are focused on survival they are not productive and there is great depression among mom and children. I have seen this in so many homes! I am a huge advocate of structure and schedule!

2. Require Work
Did I type that right? Hmm. I better check that again. Yep, it does say that. I personally find it's easier to do it myself then to hear the "I'm a slave." Where did they get that anyway? Grrr.

Children do need to learn to work to develop self-discipline. Self-discipline will not only help them through the hard times in life but it will help them through the hard times of study. Once you have identified the job the system is: Do it with the child. Then do it near the child and finally have them do it independently. Don't forget to have them return and report.

So we've been working around here like they say. We've changed things up a bit again. I do everything with them now and make sure they know how to do it. There has been no complaining and whining (since I'm doing it with them). In fact Caleb said when he went to bed last night, "I liked cleaning with you mom it was a lot of fun." We cleaned for 2 1/2 hours straight. I could go on and on. Stopping though. Need to move on. Maybe in another post.

3. Inspire Daily.
My favorite. For me the easiest. Also the most covered and talked about in Leadership Education. I've always had really good and best books around. And I've always been very selective about what I read to them. I did realize that I am not always reading them the very best things those. So we've changed that up a bit. In the morning I am now reading them a very hard, worthwhile classic. (Silas Marner by George Elliot). In the evening I read them something fun they will enjoy, but it is still very worth while. (Right now it's Wrinkle in Time #4). Again, there's a lot more to cover in this step. Later.

4. Understand Lessons and Daily Application
This step covers how to give them lessons. Also we need to make sure that we are teaching them skills that they can master in every day life so they can practice, practice, and practice. This is especially true for math. There's pages and pages of this step. So good. You really should just get the book.

5. Close the Headgate
Headgates, for those of you not in a farming community-and I am so I over course new all of this. (Yeah right). The farmer has water for his land. He channels where he wants to send the water by opening headgates that will allow the river to go to a specific field. So the question is what headgates do we have open? We need to make sure that our children are heading down the right headgates and ditches and not the wrong ones.

Yeah, I'm loving this. I've always kind of been a little obsessive about this step. I think it's so important. What I really loved about this was that she provides so many more ideas than merely saying, "no tv, no computer games, no Play Station," ya think? We all can agree that children will usually choose the activities that offer the most stimulation for the least amount of effort. (The wrong headgate).

Beyond merely limiting the obvious we need to look at all their toys and activities. Are our children's toys lifeless and thus allowing them to create? Or are the toys the push the button kind and they reenact the movie with the toys? Thus the toymaker and movie maker are the creators and the child didn't have to come up with anything. Very, very interesting. Hint: If it has batteries, it falls under this category. Sorry folks. This is where that cardboard box at Christmas is more fun than the toy you bought. I laugh though because my 9 year old's favorite toys are sticks. Yep, he always has sticks. He can find sticks ANYWHERE too. Nobody know how he does it, but they are all over the outside of our house. (and sometimes inside hidden underneath the couch or the bed)

Bye, bye organized sets. What? Are you kidding me? They aren't creating they are just following directions. Lincoln Logs, puzzles, bead kits, even pre-packaged science kits. (She mentions Lego's, but I'm going to pretend I didn't see that. I'm going to cover my eyes on that part. I promise that I will ponder it more though. Alex and I have talked about it. It makes sense, but it hurts. I have vowed to get rid of all the instruction booklets. That will earn a couple of points right? We have very few toys now, but we still have our 4 four-drawer Lego bins. We're a bit fanatical. Really though, I promise to consider).

She suggests only 12-15 toys total in the entire house. The only reason that there's a pull against it is emotional money attachment. Get over it. I had already gotten rid of of tubs and tubs. They picked all the toys to go, and they haven't missed them. It ended up amounting to 80% of the toys. Time to get rid of the other 15% I think. Like I said Luke just wants sticks. Olivia wants books, fabric and yarn. Jared doesn't know what he wants, he's like me. Caleb wants games. (The two of us played 19 straight games of Connect Four yesterday, I kid you not).

With their activities we need to get rid of the useless activities. Caleb liked to cut paper to just cut paper. Not only is it useless it is wasting time. If they can pursue useless, brain numbing activities they will never choose to pursue the best. (Remember many us have heard and reheard the concepts of good, better and best. Are we listening?)

When children pursue real and useful things their hands and minds are disciplined and they grow and learn. Things have a point. What is the end result of the activity? Was it simply to waste time? We have to many things to be accomplishing to be wasting time.

I'm going on and on. There is so much more to this step and I could write 10 blog posts about it. I probably will. They just will be disguised.

So many thoughts. The point. What is our environments like? What headgates are open that are the best and what headgates are open that are not good?