September 9, 23, 30

October 7, 14, 21, 28

​November 4, 11, 18, 25

December 2, 9, 16

January 6, 20, 27

February 3, 10, 17, 24

March 2, 9, 16, 23

April 6, 13, 20, 27

May 4, 11, 18, 25

June 1, 8, 15, 29

July 6, 13, 20, 27​

I got to thinking today about how things have changed over the years, how many things have stayed the same and how in some areas we just GREW! I thought some of our newbies might be interested in knowing a little more about that journey!

​How we have grown, changed and stayed the same over the last 25 years...

In the fall of 1997, I began teaching my almost 5 year old how to read and doing Kindergarten work with him. I absolutely loved all the fun things I found to make learning fun and exciting for him. Before he finished kindergarten he was reading at a second grade reading level. (I still teach children to read using that very same program!) I decided to bring my daughter home from public school that November. She was in fifth grade. We had our challenges, like everyone does, but it was wonderful! 

Fast forward two years, to the fall of 1999. I decided to open my home up to other children to help out some friends from church who worked. I had my third child earlier that year and I knew I wanted to keep teaching while bringing in an income. In Texas at that time, you had to be under the "child care" heading even if you were MORE than just child care. When naming our school, I knew I wanted to make sure people knew we were a faith-focused school. We went by the name Ms. Terri's Christian Kid Care & Preschool, (MTCKC Preschool) for almost 10 years. I started attending college to get my credits in childhood education. I also did an enormous amount of training during that time and the years to follow. I have a passion for learning. as well as teaching. 

We took a year and a half off to pursue missionary work, ending up on a three week mission trip to Kenya! That was exciting. Our two youngest children went with us. When we returned in 2011, we renamed the school because we thought we couldn't use the same name. Turns out we could have, but that's neither here nor there.

Our new name was Ms. Terri's Kid Care Preschool, (MTKCP). I kept it as close to what it was as possible. We were still a faith-focused preschool, just didn't have it in the name. Even though we were teaching a preschool curriculum and sending a dozen children off to kindergarten reading at a second grade reading level, we still had the child care name. I really didn't want to have that connection anymore so in the fall of 2019, after some training on becoming a preschool only, we started using our homeschool name, Bradford Christian Academy of Arlington. I graduated my oldest and youngest children with that name on their diplomas. My second child got his GED early and my third child went to public school for 11th and 12th grade and graduated from that high school.

During the 2020 "mess", we found out we could get a private school exemption and get away from the child care agency all together. We were thrilled! We would finally be able to say our paperwork stated we were a private school! At first, we kept the homeschool name and that worked fine. It was the easiest option. It just didn't really FEEL the way we wanted it to. 

In the spring of 2022 while going through even MORE training, I decided to totally rebrand our school and create a school name, logo and social media presence that was different than anything we had. We not only rebranded ourselves, we slowly started transforming the inside of our school. We changed things so it matched what we wanted our school to become and work with the activities we wanted to add and enhance the ones we already did. We purchased new resources for phonics and music, to name just two. We began working on the outside in 2023. 

Our new name, as you already know, became Adventure Corner Private School. I came up with that name because I wanted our school to be named after what it always had been, an adventure. "Corner" came from the books we use for everything. The tag line "There's Adventure Around Every Corner" came from what we discover every single day as we teach the children and use books to enhance that learning. 

While all of those changes happened, some things stayed the same and grew. 

Our well-rounded, award winning, highly accredited curriculum choices and supplemental resources were, are and always will be faith-focused because that is just a part of who we are. We prefer curriculum to have a Christian world-view because those are the values we live by and want to teach any students that go through our school, for however long they are here. Over the years, we have found new curriculum and resources to add to our program with an even better foundation in learning AND our much desired faith-based quality. As new independent, small businesses create new resources, we will continue to add things into our program. That is one way we continue to grow.

We have always used books as a foundation to any topic we are talking about, that is why our library has grown to the size it is PLUS all the reference books not in the kids part of the library. It started out so small all those years ago.

We believe that having fun is a part of learning and we strive to make sure we create the fun when studying topics that COULD be a little less interesting. 

We teach most things in groups and allow the children to learn at their own level and pace. We challenge them but don't push them if we see they aren't quite ready for something. YET, we never tell them they can't do more if there is time to do it. We encourage their creativity and desire to learn new things. 

We encourage children to treat each other with kindness and respect each other's boundaries. We teach children that responding with physical violence even if someone else has is not the answer. We encourage children to use their words to communicate instead of hitting or throwing things. We do not allow anyone in the school to pick on or "bully" others. 

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse of our journey to becoming Adventure Corner Private School. We are still striving to bring even MORE quality and value to our program every chance we get. Just like our students, we never stop learning new things and bringing that into our program. 

March 7 - 11 we will have our read Across America 2022. It will be a week later than usual but we are going to have a lot of fun. Check out the pictures for more details. 

​BCAA has been around for over two decades. We were originally named MTKCP Preschool, Where You Know Your Kids Are Having Fun! We branched out and became an early elementary private school. We blended it with our family’s homeschool, Bradford Christian Academy.

We have continued to provide the very best curriculum for each age group. We partner with Experience Curriculum and use it for each age/grade level. We use The Good and The Beautiful for math, LA, and handwriting.

At Bradford Christian Academy of Arlington we Never Underestimate The Joy of Learning. Each activity is filled with fun and exploration. We strive to put a smile on children’s faces. We capture those smiles in many photographs.

We are enrolling for the second semester, January 3 - May 27
(20 weeks excluding Spring Break March 14-18)

We off morning and full day classes.
​
Book your school tour and hold your child’s spot today!!!

Where You Know Your Kids Are Having Fun!

We gave our library a facelift, again. We opened it up so we could see in the library area from the big brown work table and from the den. 

It also allowed us to have easier access to the baskets under the bench that contain our handwriting, language arts and math books. We get them out each morning and put them away as we complete one. We like to keep things looking uncluttered. 

We pulled the table out to make it bigger for our school days. Now the kids have more room to work and I still have room for the extras that they need on the table. 

Communicating with others is done in many ways. Experience Curriculum did a fantastic job of giving us so many super fun Make & Play crafts. 

One of the most popular is with a phone. We made cell phones. They decorated the back of them just like a fancy phone cover. We glued on the number pad and they made a phone book. It was so fun watching them use their phones. They were all taking pictures of each other. And they posed for the pictures. 

A child’s imagination is a grand thing! 

Another Make & Play for communication with others was a computer. They loved making laptops. They decorated the outside and one boy decided he wanted to draw his own picture on the inside instead of using the picture provided. 

They played with them the rest of the day. They emailed each other and shopped online. It was really funny to hear the roll play. They would tell someone “I sent you a message!” One girl told her friend “Stop sending me so many messages!” 

The children took their computers home but it was so fun that I want to have it as a play option daily. We have some extra supplies that I’m going to make a few more for them to use, along with some extra cell phones. I am contemplating laminating them to make them hold up longer. 

Sometimes pretend play is a whole lot more fun AND beneficial than technology. I encourage you to give it a try. 

While learning about how we communicate with each other, we talked about sending and receiving mail!  That is somewhat of a lost art but we should bring it back. 
The children decorated the front of a postcard, we get one each month in our curriculum. The older children write a small note to someone special on the other side and chose someone to mail it to. Each day we have a coloring picture that has our daily topic in English and Spanish. 

Those were the highlights of the week. Next week we will be wrapping up our Friends & Feeling unit and preparing for our October theme!