Have you considered using Apologia curriculum for your homeschool co-op but aren’t quite sure how to make it work in a group setting?
One of the biggest questions co-op leaders have is how to divide the learning between home and co-op, and how to make the most of the time everyone spends together. Apologia’s homeschool curriculum gives you a strong foundation that you can adapt to your group’s ages, schedule, and goals.
Wondering what that can look like in practice? Watch this video to see how Apologia curriculum can be used in a homeschool co-op. You’ll see real classroom footage, hear teachers’ firsthand experiences, and see students thrive with Apologia’s award-winning curriculum.
You can access a digital preview of our curriculum FREE for 30-days. Visit the link below to request access to your free curriculum preview.
We offer physical preview copies to qualifying co-ops at 50% off, with free shipping*.
To order discounted preview copies, please contact:
Angela Steele
[email protected]
765-238-4751
To apply for a co-op discount, please complete our co-op application.
*Limit one preview copy per title and a total of four books. Products purchased at the discounted preview rate cannot be returned.
– Erin Taylor, Homeschool Co-op Leader
The key to using Apologia successfully in a co-op is to think of your weekly meeting as an opportunity to build on what students are learning at home—not repeat it.
Apologia’s student-directed curriculum allows students to complete much of their reading, notebooking, and individual work at home. Then, when your group meets, you can focus on the parts of learning that are especially rewarding when done together:
This approach gives you the structure of a proven homeschool curriculum while allowing your co-op to have its own personality and rhythm.
You don’t have to teach every page during your co-op meeting. You get to decide what is best done at home and what is better together.
Apologia curriculum was created with homeschool families in mind, so flexibility is built into the learning experience. That makes it easy to adapt for a variety of co-op settings.
Whether you’re leading a small group of elementary students or a larger class of middle or high school students, you can use Apologia as your foundation and tailor the experience to your group.
Here are some of the ways Apologia can support your co-op:
And perhaps most importantly, you don’t have to start from scratch every week. Apologia gives you a roadmap, so you can spend more of your time thinking about how to engage your students rather than what you’re going to teach.
There are many creative ways to teach an Apologia course in a co-op setting, giving you the flexibility to adjust the course to fit your teaching style. We hope that you find the materials in this guide helpful in getting started.
Have students complete their assigned reading at home and come to co-op prepared to discuss it.
Use the discussion questions in the curriculum as a starting point, then encourage students to explain ideas in their own words, ask questions, and make connections.
This approach works particularly well with older students who are ready to think more deeply about what they’re learning.
This is a natural fit for Apologia science.
Rather than spending your entire co-op meeting lecturing about a concept students have already read about at home, use your time together to experience it.
Conduct experiments. Build models. Make observations. Test ideas. Give students opportunities to work together.
Apologia’s science curriculum includes hands-on activities and experiments that can be adapted for a group setting, making science a particularly natural choice for co-ops.
Some lessons lend themselves beautifully to larger projects.
Students might create a model, conduct research, prepare a presentation, build something, or work together to demonstrate what they’ve learned.
Projects can also give older students opportunities to take on leadership roles within the group.
Don’t overlook the Book Extras that come with Apologia curriculum.
Book Extras provide additional videos, visual resources, and other content that can help students see a concept from a different perspective.
They’re also a great resource for co-op leaders who don’t want to spend hours searching the internet for supplemental material.
You can assign a Book Extra for students to watch at home or use one during your co-op meeting to introduce or reinforce a concept.
Use your Apologia curriculum as a jumping-off point for field trips and real-world experiences.
Depending on your course, your co-op might visit a museum, nature center, zoo, planetarium, historical site, botanical garden, or another location connected to what students are learning.
The curriculum gives you the foundation. Your co-op gives you the freedom to take learning beyond the textbook.
“As a science teacher for homeschool co-ops, Apologia is all I use. This year I’m using five different courses to teach my different classes. Needless to say, I love Apologia!”
– Franchesca Fontaine Haig, Homeschool Co-op Teacher
“We have used Apologia Science since beginning our homeschool journey six years ago. After leaving the public school sector, my girls are truly enjoying learning this subject from a Creation standpoint which is very important to all of us. I believe it to be a very thorough curriculum that challenges them to think deeper than most others I’ve looked at. I will continue to use Apologia until graduation and have shared my love for its Biblical and intellectual standpoint with many friends and family members in the homeschool arena.”
– Tammye Armbrister, Homeschool Co-op Member
“My children and I have really appreciated the What We Believe series from Apologia. So far, we have finished the first in the series, Who is God?, and we are almost done with the second, Who Am I? Both are very well done, addressing pretty hard and deep topics with clarity and age-appropriate examples. It is interesting enough for my 7-year-old and in-depth enough for my 12-year-old, similar to their science series. And, honestly, I’ve learned a lot. I would highly recommend it.”
– Rebekah, Homeschool Co-op Member
“As a science teacher for homeschool co-ops, Apologia is all I use. This year, I’m using five different courses to teach my classes. Needless to say, I love Apologia!”
– Homeschool Co-op Teacher
Yes. Apologia curriculum can be adapted for homeschool co-ops, with students completing much of their individual reading and work at home and using co-op meetings for discussion, hands-on activities, experiments, projects, and group learning.
Many Apologia courses can work well in a co-op. Science is especially well suited to group learning because of its hands-on experiments and activities. Apologia also offers math and Bible, which can be great subjects for co-op learning.
In most cases, having students complete their assigned reading and individual work at home will help you make the most of your co-op meeting. You can then spend your time together discussing or completing hands-on experiments or activities to enhance what students learned.
You don’t need to teach the entire lesson during co-op. Instead, identify the parts of the curriculum that benefit most from group learning and use your meeting time for discussion, experiments, demonstrations, activities, and projects.
Yes. You can adapt activities and assignments for different ages while still letting students participate in a shared learning experience. Younger students can focus on observations and basic concepts, while older students can take on additional research, writing, or leadership responsibilities.
Yes. Apologia offers a free Homeschool Co-Op Kickstart Guide, curriculum previews, Book Extras, and additional resources to help co-op leaders plan and teach their classes.
