Another Way to Homeschool – Veritas Press Self-Paced Courses
Homeschooling life can get busy! Multiple students or part-time work may make it even harder to get everything done and (maybe!) still have time to take a much-needed break now and then. Sometimes you want to set your students up and have them handle a subject on their own.
If you’re wishing your kiddos could handle a subject or two without you, the self-paced courses offered by Veritas Press may be just what you need. I admit that I absolutely, positively LOVE the self-paced Bible and history classes offered by Veritas Press! My children took these self-paced online classes for years, so we have lots of experience with them. In fact, even though my children are technically too old for these classes (I now have two adults and a 17-year-old), my autistic daughter (who is 24 years old but functions at a much younger age level) still takes these classes and loves them.
How Self-Paced Courses Work
There is no planning or teaching time on the part of the parent. (Yay!) The student logs in to the class each day and watches, participates, and learns. The student learns through videos, games, scenes that are acted out, songs, activities, map skills, tests, and more. I think one of the main things my children always loved about these classes was the fact that they didn’t seem like classes. They seemed more like entertainment. But they are packed so full of information that they’re learning from the moment they log on until the class ends.
The lessons are pre-recorded, but it sounds and feels as if the child is watching a scene being acted out. The teachers are more like actors and actresses who are acting the parts of characters who lived during the time period being presented in the lessons. You may be wondering if it’s a good idea for children to sit and watch their history and Bible classes. After all, we don’t want to encourage our children to sit and watch (zombie-style) the classes and simply be passive learners, right? No worries! There are lots and lots of interactive elements to these classes! Your children will sing songs, do puzzles, complete spelling challenges, play games, and answer questions. There is actually a great balance of watching/listening and interacting with the lessons in my opinion.
My son, who has now graduated from our homeschool, loved these lessons! (And he generally didn’t love school work, so that truly was a blessing for me!) The characters made the lessons so much more fun than just listening to a lecture. The characters often present humorous situations or make jokes. They truly do make the lessons fun to watch. Honest truth: When my son was doing these self-paced courses, his younger sister would beg to be allowed to watch them with him because she loved them too!
When it’s test time, the parent doesn’t have to do anything to keep the process moving. The student takes the test and it is automatically graded after completion. Each section can vary in length, but after a section is completed, there is a test. There are review tests after many of the lessons, but these are usually geared as games to play and not true tests.
What I Personally Love About These Self-Paced Courses
Something I personally loved about the self-paced classes was the flexibility they gave us! My son homeschooled year round so that we could take days off whenever we wanted or needed to do so. You may choose to homeschool during the traditional school year and take the entire summer off. No matter what kind of schedule you like, you can fit these classes into what works for you!
The courses can be completed in 8 to 9 months (one traditional school year), but your subscription runs for a full 12 months in case you homeschool all year. I chose to do fewer lessons each week and to extend the school year with my son, and this worked great for us! Also, since the courses are available 24/7, your child, whether he or she is a night owl or an early bird, can do the work at whatever time of day works best! (If you were to need more than 12 months to complete a course, you can buy a course extension. This way you don’t lose progress or have to repurchase the entire course.)
Another thing I loved about these courses was that they gave my son the ability to start developing some independence with his school work. As I mentioned earlier, he didn’t love doing school. He would rather have been climbing a tree or jumping on the trampoline or playing in the dirt. Those are all great things to do, but school work is also necessary, and I wanted him to enjoy it as much as possible.
When I had to constantly remind him to do his work or peek over his shoulder to make sure it got done, he was learning to rely on me instead of developing independence. These courses motivated him to want to do his work! And because everything is done online and is automatically generated, he didn’t have to wait on me or depend on me to do anything in order for him to continue making progress in his classes.
Perfect for Special Needs Kids
As I have mentioned, I have a special needs daughter. I have my daughter’s helper, Chris, work the classes with her. Chris assists Hannah with many of the activities in the classes (like the review games), but for the most part Hannah is able to move on with no assistance. When I asked Chris if she would be willing to give me some feedback to add to this article, she was happy to do that because she enjoys the classes so much and learns from them along with Hannah!
Chris really enjoys the lessons as it gives both Hannah and her something to learn and something constructive to do–not just activities that are busy work. The lessons are both entertaining and educational for them.
Chris also mentioned that she likes the fact that, once the course was finished, Hannah could go back to favorite lessons or sections and watch them over again. Hannah especially enjoyed replaying the review song.
I personally believe that most special needs kids are so much more capable of learning than we often think they are! Whether you have a child who has a mild learning difference or a more serious diagnosis, I truly do encourage you to try out these classes! Because they work for so many learning styles, I think you’ll be glad you gave them a try!
Available Subjects
Right now, three subjects are available in Self-Paced format: Bible (2nd-6th grades), History (2nd-6th grades), and Omnibus (7th-12th grades). Every course is built to be multi-level.
Literature for Use in the History Courses
To make things even better, there are kits available for every Self-Paced course. These kits include all the reading materials for that particular Self-Paced course. While only Omnibus has required reading material, you can also look into the History Literature Kits for some fun, optional literature that pairs up with the time period your student is learning about.
Since students of different reading levels can take the same course, you’ll notice there are two “levels” for the history literature kits. Level 1 is meant for students in 2nd-3rd grade. Level 2 is for 4th-6th grade students. A reading schedule is automatically included with the Self-Paced course, so you know exactly which book to read for which grade level even if you just want to use whatever books you already own.
Flashcards for Bible and History Courses
One of the additional resources you may want to use is a set of flashcards. In fact, I highly suggest that you buy and use the flashcards. I used them with my children to introduce the lesson each week and give them a basic understanding of what they would be learning that week. The flashcards also helped them answer the worksheet questions. By becoming familiar with lessons before watching the videos and using the flashcards to help answer worksheet questions, my children were able to better understand and remember what they learned.
Click here to purchase your very own course today.
Or click here to see some sample self-paced lessons.
Other Information
I suggest that you either plan to watch the classes on certain days each week or that you set a number of classes to watch each week just to be sure you don’t fall behind. When you pay for a class, you have access for one year, and you don’t want to skip too many weeks and find yourself rushing to get them all done toward the end of the year of access. These classes really are so much fun and they’re packed so full of information that I feel like you’d be wasting them if you have to rush through to get done. We never had that problem because my children literally used to beg to do multiple lessons a day! But it is something that’s good to keep in mind for planning purposes.
Some Words of Warning
The Songs Are Addictive
I’m not kidding when I say that the timeline song for each self-paced history or Bible class is something you will sing (or at least hum) to yourself over and over and over if you watch the classes with your children. I used to have my children wait until I was available to watch the classes with them because I loved them so much!
(Note: It is not necessary for the parent to watch the classes with the student. I did it because I wanted to enjoy the classes along with my children.)
You Will Learn a Lot
I remember when I was in school (both elementary and high school) that history was so very boring! I actually thought I disliked history because I didn’t know any better. I’d never learned history in a way that could be fun. Instead, we read from a dry, boring textbook, answered questions from the same dry, boring textbook, and took tests. We did occasionally have some fun discussions, but not often!
I left high school feeling like I really didn’t learn nearly what I needed to know about history. (Bible wasn’t taught in my high school.) And it’s no wonder I didn’t remember much of what I learned. Having fun truly does help us learn and remember! So get ready to sing songs, play games, and learn a lot with your children!
Do you have questions?
Here is a short video that gives some information about these self-paced classes.
Available Courses
The self-paced history courses that are available for 2nd-6th grades are:
- Old Testament & Ancient Egypt
- New Testament, Greece & Rome
- Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation
- Explorers to 1815
- 1815 to Present
The self-paced Bible courses (also for 2nd-6th grades) are:
- Genesis to Joshua
- Judges to Kings
- Gospels
There are also self-paced Omnibus classes for 7th-12th graders (which I didn’t discuss in this article).
Why should my child take a Self-Paced class through Veritas Press?
No matter what style of teaching you ultimately choose, the folks at Veritas Press believe that education doesn’t cost; it pays. Nothing deserves our time, resources, or energy more than our children. The mission of Veritas Press is to empower you, the parent, to provide excellent, Christ-focused, rigorous teaching for your family—whether that’s via You Teach Kits, Self-Paced Courses, or Live Online Classes. Invest in your students’ academic development, and both you and they will reap the rewards for a lifetime!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Stephanie of Veritas Press.
