Creating Your Curriculum

Abstract

Who would have thought that teaching kids how to pick lemons could be a part of a family education curriculum? Well, the Leavens family, owners of the Leavens Ranches in Ventura and Monterey counties in California, did. Leavens Ranches is a thriving agricultural business that grows lemons, avocados, and grapes. The parents in the second generation and the nine cousins in the third generation all participate in the business in one way or another, but not all work in it. The Leavens family members are scattered across the United States and some live abroad. The family has grappled—successfully—with the issues of passing the business to the third generation, and the third generation has been taking its own long-range steps to ensure that the business passes on just as smoothly to the fourth generation and eventually to the fifth.