Through my former chess club's 30 years anniversary celebration, I received word that it was running short of chess instructors. Therefore (and because my oldest son coincidentally discovered the game and expressed interest), I decided to give something back by taking up one of the chess teaching assignments. In fact, why not teach while waiting for my son's chess class to finish ? In September 2008, I started teaching chess at the Humbeekse Schaakclub, according to the widely accepted (Dutch) Steps Method, more particularly steps 4 and 4+ (and step 4extra the year thereafter). These steps handle intermediate chess concepts (tactics still dominating over positional aspects). Topics include a.o. interfering/luring/blocking while attacking, pawn structure, attacking the king, queen against pawn endgame, learning to think ahead, etc. The course material is more than excellent: an instructor's handbook accompanying the pupil's 3 exercise books, jointly containing around 1500 exercises covering all different topics.
During my 2 years of teaching, I spent a large amount of time on course preparation. This included reading the course material, making all exercises upfront, analyzing played games for feedback and distilling thematic exercises (through the ChessBase Light software), etc. The first year, I taught steps 4 and 4+ in parallel, carefully planning each joint session in advance. Step 4extra merely repeated the same theory, but incorporated more difficult exercises. In addition to the regular course material, I also squeezed in some simultaneous exhibitions and mini tournaments (regular games, pawns only, imposed openings, ...) to prevent dull theory/exercise classes. Unlike the large classes in e.g. the Netherlands (where chess is more popular), I taught only a couple of pupils, their ages ranging from 8 to 12 years old. This allowed for an individual approach, reaping tangible benefits, being reflected in this very young foursome competitively playing as a team in 5th national interclub division. They were all high potentials, regularly winning tournaments, so I had to be careful not to get outclassed (still awakening from my almost 20 years chess break ...).
I privately taught a compressed version of step 1 to my oldest son, just to get him going. I initially also fully prepared for step 3, thereby getting a good feel for the entire course books series. After 2 years, however, I decided to halt my initiative (due to my agenda becoming too crowded, and my pupils having reached enough maturity to move on).
Actually, skipping ahead to 2015, my 2 'oldest' pupils apparently simultaneously became Belgian champion in their respective age categories: Arno Sterck (U16) and Yordi De Block (U18), see Arno Sterck en Yordi De Block zijn Belgisch kampioen schaken video (in Dutch) ! I will gladly add that my youngest pupil Fabio De Block (i.e. Yordi's younger brother), also was selected for the subsequent (U16) World Youth Championships in Porto Carras, Halkidiki, Greece. His performance rating simply went through the roof ! In 2017, Arno Sterck became Belgian Champion again, this time in the U18 category: Arno Sterck uit Kapelle-op-den-Bos is Belgisch Kampioen Schaken. In retrospect, I surely must have done something right during those couple of teaching years :-).
Fast forwarding again to 2017, I taught my youngest son (age 13) + fellow student and her mother Step 1. Both youngsters played a couple of tournaments, and on 2017-05-20 I (as non-classified ELO player) even participated in a 5 Swiss rounds +1700 ELO side tournament myself, losing to 1842 ELO, winning against 1821 ELO, losing to 1937 ELO and 1812 ELO, and winning against non-classified ELO (who exhibited similar playing strength), all 5 being interesting games. I did prepare some relatively sharp opening repertoire, i.e. Grand Prix Attack, King's Gambit, Dutch Defense (Classicial Variation), and Sicilian Defense (Accelerated Dragon), but none of this came onto the chess board (or just diverged after the first 2 or 3 moves). I'll probably stick to this modest preparation (avoiding rework) in case some other side event might come up again ...