In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we covered both the subjects your children should learn and the resources they’ll need to learn. Today, we take a look at lessons, including who’ll teach them to your kids. If you’ve just naturally assumed that it has to be the parent, you may be in for a surprise.

But first, what is a lesson, anyway?

Lessons are the bridge between what your child now knows and what they could know. They’re a combination of instruction, interaction, application, review, and other activities. Good lessons should lead children on an educational journey, not just for one day, but throughout the course of an entire school year. Lessons must work together in the right sequence to ensure that students learn every new concept, skill, or scrap of knowledge they’ll need for the following year. Needless to say, it takes insight, wisdom, and creativity to develop really good lesson plans.

You might assume every homeschool mom somehow magically creates enough time to write up their own lesson plans and deliver compelling, age-appropriate lessons to each and every one of their children, in addition to everything else they have to do as moms.

The truth is, there are three ways your children can get their lessons:

1. Parent-led
2. Video instruction
3. Combination approach

Parent-led instruction is probably what most people have in mind when they picture homeschooling. Mom or dad leads the children through the various activities that make up the lesson, all in an effort to introduce new concepts, develop skills, and review what’s been learned.

With video instruction, children watch teachers leading lessons on videos. Mom and dad’s role is just as important—administering and grading tests, reviewing progress, and talking with their children about what they’re learning—but less time-intensive.

Obviously, you don’t have to homeschool exclusively one way or the other. Many parents choose a combination approach where they lead lessons themselves for some subjects while relying on video lessons to deliver lessons to their children on the more challenging subjects.

How Abeka Can Help

We’re in this to support homeschoolers of all shapes and stripes. That’s why we offer of variety of resources to help parents succeed. For instance:

Curriculum Lesson Plans

These are like a GPS for your homeschool journey. Step by step and day by day, parents know what they need to do in order to teach. They’re so thorough, they even give you the words to say if you’re not sure how to introduce new concepts. Curriculum Lesson Plans are available for K4 through 6th grade. In middle school and high school, the Teacher Edition of each textbook contains valuable lesson plans for you to follow.

Parent Kits

Parent Kits are product bundles containing the resources each parent needs for the year are available from K4 through 12th grade. In addition to lesson plans, you’ll find teaching aids, answer keys, solution keys, and more, all designed to make homeschool life easier for parents who want to lead lessons themselves.

Abeka Academy Video Homeschooling

Available for K4 through 12th grade, Abeka Academy features experienced teachers interacting with students and leading 170 days worth of lessons for all the core subjects.  It’s ideal for parents with multiple children or anyone who’s new to homeschooling. There’s even an accredited enrollment option that provides transcripts, report cards, recordkeeping, and more.

Subject Combination Videos

For parents of elementary-age children, Abeka offers partial enrollments in Abeka Academy through subject combination videos. Our master teachers lead lessons for some of the subjects while you provide lessons for the other subjects.

Single Subject Videos

Many parents of teenagers enjoy leading the lessons but want some help when it comes to algebra or chemistry. That’s where Abeka single subject Abeka Academy enrollments for Grades 7–12 can help.

Whichever way you decide to teach, Abeka is here to help you have an incredible—and successful—homeschool experience.

Give some thought about how you want your kids to receive their lessons: parent-led, video lessons, or a combination. In Part 4 of this series, we’ll look at one last set of decisions you need to make with regard to your homeschool program.

Read part 4 of this series.