Curriculum Choices for 2018-19 History/Language Arts

I get ask all the time. What curriculum do you use? I wrote about it a long time ago in the post My Style of Homeschooling, but I thought I would update it in a new post. I am still very much an Eclectic....which means "a little bit of this and a little bit of that"  I do attempt to make a year long plan every summer, but its only the 4th full week of school and I've already edited "the plan" 4x!


This year I am using From Adam to US as my spine for {almost everything}

This is a middle school level study on World History...Starting with Adam and Ending up in the Modern Times called "Computer Age" LOL 

This spine has recommended literature that aligns with the time period the kids are studying! We have explored these two books so far this year! 

Some of the books that are recommended this year have a Brave Writer Arrow Guide to accompany them, but not all of them!  So I plan to use those when available, but when not available, I am pulling in.....

Writing Rhetoric is a collection of stories of men and woman from the Middle Age Time Period. The kids practice diagramming sentences and identifying parts of speech as well as learn to write a compare/contrast essay for each person.  I have "scheduled" this to match what we study in History. 

It takes about 2 weeks to cover one person. 

Both Kids have had a Cursive Class and we use Draw and Write Through History to practice our skills! 

I am using  the Fallacy Detective and Philosophy for Kids to teach Logic and Reasoning Skills. It is SO much fun and talk about Big Juicy Conversations!!!

So I'll come back another day and talk about Math and Science and our Beautiful Things Loop! 

The Biggest Juciest Conversation Ever

I am the mom to 3 preteens now. One reason I home educate is because I want to be the one who educates my kids...and not just in the 3 R's. I want to have BIG JUICY CONVERSATIONS with my kids about all the hard stuff too. God's Design for Marriage, Sex, Abortion, Gun Control, Evolution vs Creationism.....I want them to hear it from me.  Research supports that when children learn things from their parents, they are more likely to accept it as absolute truth than when they hear it from someone else. { You don't have to home educate to have this BJC's!}

I remember sitting in at a ladies luncheon one day listening to Abby Johnson talk about her radical freedom from the abortion industry. I remember her saying  "Does you daughter know, its ok to tell you she's pregnant?"  I would venture to guess that in most Christian homes the answer is no. I don't even think I had a daughter yet when I heard this....but yesterday, I had the opportunity to look at my preteen daughter in the eyes and say...."God's Design is that you wait for marriage to have sex and have a baby, BUT if you ever find yourself pregnant...I will help you."

So you must be wondering what would spark such a conversation at such a young age......Protesters.

It is not uncommon to find protesters at First Baptist Church Dallas. However yesterday was a little different. These protesters held up signs of an unborn baby and were protesting they fact that abortion was not illegal. I stopped and briefly spoke to one of them and assured him that First Baptist Dallas was a pro life church and he was actually standing across the street from our Downtown Pregnancy Center that saves hundreds of lives each year. He had a political agenda that I won't elaborate on in this post.

So later in the day, my preteens who had seen these signs had questions.  {One of my children knew, one didn't, one wasn't in the car for the conversation}

What is abortion?  Why would people abort a baby? How does a pregnancy center "save" babies? Why did they think Dr Jeffress could make abortion illegal? Are the protesters Christian? Why are they allowed to scream at us in front our church?

Deep Breath, Mama.....your about to have the Biggest Juciest Conversation you've ever had!

In my 40 minute car ride how from downtown, I think I had the sweetest conversation ever. We talked about God's design for sex to be within marriage.{They have heard this many times before thanks to  Mary Flo }
We talked about how some people don't wait for marriage and something find themselves in trouble.

We talked about the 3 choices people have when they find themselves in trouble. 1. Parenting 2. Adoption 3. Abortion. 

We talked about our wonderful pregnancy center that offers hope to woman who need help and find themselves in trouble. We talked about how God loves these woman and their babies. {And of course the Adoption thing led in some realities for the first time about our own little family......}

We talked about free speech. We talked about the process it takes to make things illegal.

We talked about the importance of knowing both sides of a situation so that you can defend what you believe. We talked about freedom of speech.

We talked out how proud they should be to be a member of First Baptist Church of Dallas.

I went to bed last night, thanking God for this opportunity to have this Big Juicy Conversation with my kids. They won't forget it.....ever.  And my boy......he ended the night promising me he would never ever even touch a girl. hahahaha.

From my heart to yours......

Back to Learning...

Well....its that time again. New books. New supplies. New year.....New things to learn....Same teacher.  I have had a hard 2018. I was tempted to put my kids in traditional school this year. Why? Because I can't seem to pull it all together "perfectly" You know the pintrest perfect back to school table.

.the perfectly designed school room...you get the drift. Then one afternoon, a sweet mom from my church posted on facebook....."we just started today...."  And I thought....what a novel idea??!! Let's just start. My bookshelf is full of curriculum.{I am a known curriculum junkie}...my brain is full of ideas..{it never stops thinking of  teaching methods..thank DBU for that I guess??}

Let's just start. SO WE DID. One random day, I called the kids to the table and we started. 5th and 6th grade.

We started with  Notgrass History Curriculum that I love that combines, Bible, History and great non-twaddle novels:)

Levi has been emailing back and forth with a friend creating a movie script together. His friend recommended Writing Radar. For now, I am following the inspiration. The picture below was taken on a SATURDAY morning. The power of peer recommendations.

Levi is going to do Life of Fred math this year. He loves it. I've told him as long as he can pass the quizzes in a more standard Math format, I will allow it.  He is also taking a Middle School Life Science class this year at Thinking Reeds. 

He was also thrilled to find this Scientific Calculator on sale at Target. So I found a Math lesson on Math Geek Mama..that would be a good fit for him to use it. This is a great site for fun hands on math lessons. 

I found Ava a great fun lesson on factoring. I was thrilled with the find. She wasn't. 

We are going to continue using CNN 10 for our daily World and Current Events. I like to watch this before our prayer time each morning because then we are able to pray specifically for things happening in our World. 

Last but not least..{ for today} Keyboarding! I've had this file on my computer for two years! 

Pulled it out, and we hit lesson 1. 

Last but not least----these are my books for the next few months! 

Hopefully, I'll see you again real soon! 

Happy Birthday First Baptist Dallas....My First Dallas Story

I am ask often "Did you grow up in the church?" My answer is always yes.....sorta.

Lets go back to the 1960's.  My dad was in seminary and was one of Dr. Criswell's close associates. My mom sang in the choir. One day....they met, fell in love, got married.......yadda yadda yadda.

In 1974, I was born and although my family had moved for my father to be a pastor of his own church, they took me back to Dallas for Dr. Criswell to dedicate me to the Lord.  Thus beginning my deep roots at First Baptist Dallas.

As I grew up a pastor's daughter.....my mom always planned our summer trips to Dallas to align with First Baptist Dallas, Criswell Kids Camp and Jane Mason's Junior Camp.  (Genius for a young mom....right?)  However her doing this planted the seeds of love for all things First Baptist Dallas. The camps were always the highlight of my year and I began making friendships with the those who I would one day would have kids alongside of me.

I remember the summer of 1992 in particularly, my family had just made a major move. I was given the awesome opportunity of spending the entire summer in Dallas. This was my dream come true.  The Treadway family picked me up every Sunday from the house I was staying in Garland and drove me to FBCD. I was able to attend youth camp that summer and further deepened my friendships .One evening while riding with the Treadways, we stopped at the home of Bill and Melanie Rogers. Little did I know how God was going to use this couple in just a few short years to change my life.
 At the end of the summer, I begged my parents to let me live with my aunt for my senior year, so that I could attend First Baptist Academy.....but no dice:((

In the Fall of 1993, I returned to Dallas at the age of the 18 to attend Dallas Baptist University. I could not wait to walk the aisle on Sunday to become a member of First Baptist Dallas on my own. Dr. O.S. Hawkins had just become the pastor and I absolutely adored him. He was my first pastor that was not my dad.  As a young college girl, I needed a job. Being an Elementary Education major, the first place I looked was the at the DBU Lab School. I soon had an interview with Melanie Rogers.
Melanie and I quickly became very close friends. She adopted me as her own....and I am so thankful to her. I had a family away from home, who I spent the weekends with and even got up early to sit with her and Bill in church every Sunday. (They went to the 8am service!)

Melanie and I became such good friends that it became necessary to find a job where she was not also my boss. In 1995,  I applied at First Baptist Dallas to work at the Developmental Learning Center. I was hired to rock babies and give bottles on demand. I worked for the DLC, I think about a year when one afternoon the phone rang and I "was summoned" across the street to the Preschool Ministry office. I was offered a job to join the staff of First Baptist Dallas as a Preschool Intern under the direction of Pat Gilbert. Little did I know THIS would be a turning point in my life.  Pat took me under her wing and trained me to do everything with excellence as unto the Lord.  During my time as Preschool Intern, Pat also hired Shelly Taylor as the the Childcare Coordinator.

I graduated in the Spring of 1997 with my BA in Elementary Education, and went into the public school system. God called Pat to somewhere else in September of 1997. I worked full time during the school year but continued to help the church out during my summer vacations.

On New Years Eve 1997, I met the man who would become my husband. We married in December of 1999. Our new pastor Dr. Mac Brunson agreed to help my dad with our ceremony . Mac is an incredible pastor and friend to our family.  The next few years were very difficult for us as we found ourselves in a fertility struggle..and several miscarriages. Mac and his sweet wife Debbie were very close to use and prayed with us often. I remember one time, Debbie prayed boldly  that I would have a baby by the following Easter.  God answered her prayer and that next Easter we brought Zachariah to church for the first time!

The next few years were very busy as God blessed us again 8 months later with Levi and then 13 months later with Ava.   Now to be CRAZY honest, having a girl became expensive! LOL. I loved having my girl. One Sunday, I went to Martha Batts, who was serving as Interim Preschool Minister and said, "Martha, Can I pull some childcare hours? I've got to pay for all these new girlie things!"



Martha was so excited to tell me that she needed someone to give "Cradle Roll" a new face. Cradle Roll was the name of a ministry the church had for expectant moms. This was a perfect little side job for me. I was in a season where I knew all about the "cradle" and thus Great Expectations was born at First Baptist Church of Dallas.  I kept that position on staff for the next few years.

The Easter right after Ava was born, we had her baby dedication, in the same historic place where my parents had dedicated me! Dr. Jeffress allowed my dad to be part of the dedication. It was so very special.

I was thrilled a few years later when Shelly Taylor came back on Staff as our new Preschool and Children's Minister. Our children's area had gone through some transition and Shelly and I were very much aligned in our views and philosophies.  I am currently serving on the church staff as the First at Home Coordinator.  This is a ministry we offer to home school moms and families. I do not claim to be an expert, but I love this current place of ministry at First Baptist Dallas.

I know that every time my children walk in the door....they are intentionally taught the word of God. I am thankful for our current pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress as he boldly preaches God's word every Sunday. Happy Birthday, First Baptist Dallas!