Coffee in hand, I am running from one end of the building to the other, ready to tackle the next problem. I whisper a prayer along the way. One teacher is looking for a lectern that seems to have disappeared from their classroom. Another is navigating a challenging situation with a student who has special needs. A new family has walked through our doors after withdrawing their children from public school because of bullying. The mom is in tears, unsure of what to do next. And somewhere in the middle of it all, there’s a spill in the hallway that needs cleaning up. 

Welcome to a day in my life as the faculty director at a homeschool resource center. It may sound a little chaotic, and some days it certainly is. But tucked into the middle of the unexpected moments are opportunities. I can encourage teachers, support homeschool families, build community, and remind myself why this work matters so much. Lives are changed here every day. To me, this is kingdom work! 

The Origin & Vision of Firmly Planted

In 2018, the Lord led me to this resource center, aptly called Firmly Planted, a name inspired by Psalm 1. At the time, I was desperately searching for a like-minded community. I wanted my own children to become deeply rooted in God’s Word. I wanted them to learn alongside other families who shared our values. The Lord graciously answered that prayer through the ministry of Firmly Planted. 

The Firmly Planted Homeschool Resource Center, founded by Heidi and Jay St. John, opened in 2017. Its vision was to bring homeschooling families together while keeping parents at the center of their children’s education. Our families can choose from core academic classes, specialty courses like Spanish and automotive, and electives ranging from ceramics to ballet. Some parents come looking for help with a challenging academic subject. Others want their children to explore a new interest alongside friends.  

The beauty of our model is that families can choose the level of support that works best for them. Parents remain the primary educators. But they don’t have to navigate the journey alone. 

When I first found Firmly Planted, the community was meeting in a warehouse. What began as a gathering of like-minded homeschooling families soon grew into a movement throughout southwest Washington. These parents wanted to take an active role in their children’s education. As the community grew, more parents stepped forward to teach classes and share their passions with other families. 

A few years later, the center was given the opportunity to move into a $16 million facility. Today, we serve more than 850 students each week. It’s been incredible to see how the Lord has grown this community. He has also preserved our vision that brought families together in the first place. Our parents remain at the heart of their children’s education. 

As faculty director, I have the privilege of seeing firsthand how our classes and co-ops support families on their homeschooling journey. We offer both individual classes and co-op programs. Our hope is to equip teachers to teach subjects they are passionate about across a range of grade levels. 

The Search for a Curriculum

Our teachers come from all kinds of backgrounds. Some have formal teaching experience. Others are homeschooling parents who simply love a subject and want to share it with students. Our classrooms bring together different ages, abilities, and learning styles. So we need a curriculum that is easy to use, adaptable, academically strong, and, most importantly, biblically grounded. 

As our community grew, so did the need for resources that could work within our unique classroom settings. We also wanted to make teaching more approachable for parents who felt called to lead a class but weren’t sure they were qualified. Plus, some teachers were working with students across multiple grade levels. Adapting a full-year curriculum to a shorter co-op schedule could feel overwhelming. 

As I begin this series of articles, I want to share what we’ve learned. We learned not simply about a curriculum. We learned how BJU Press Homeschool can work within a homeschool co-op or resource center. My goal is to show how we can do this and preserve what makes homeschooling so valuable in the first place. We don’t have to sacrifice freedom, flexibility, and the ability to educate our children with purpose. 

Why Firmly Planted Uses BJU Press Homeschool

Over the past few years, we’ve incorporated BJU Press Homeschool into different classes and co-ops. Along the way, we’ve discovered practical ways its resources can make teaching easier while preserving the academic depth we want for our students. 

One thing we most appreciate about BJU Press Homeschool is its commitment to providing academically engaging material grounded in a biblical worldview. It doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. Instead, it approaches them through the lens of the gospel. 

We’ve also appreciated BJU Press Homeschool’s extra resources. These are designed to help teachers adapt the curriculum to their classroom setting. For example, the Teacher Edition Companions help our teachers adapt a curriculum to a co-op schedule. Instead of five days a week over a full school year, we can follow our shorter sixteen-week co-op schedule. Rather than feeling restricted by a set program, our teachers can select content that best fits their students and schedule. And they can still provide a meaningful, academically rich experience. 

We’ve also found the teacher resources approachable. They work for parents with varying levels of teaching experience. A homeschool mom may have a formal teaching background. Or she may be stepping into the classroom for the first time. Teacher Edition Companions can guide her through the material. Lesson preparation becomes more manageable. 

The extra videos and slides in BJU Press Class Connect have been particularly valuable for us, too. Angie Zarzana is one of our teachers who teaches our core Bible Doctrine course. She shared how grateful she was to have a video featuring Dr. Renton Rathbun explaining a biblical doctrine in greater depth. She didn’t have to explain every aspect of the topic on her own. Instead, she could play the video and then lead the class in discussion. This gave students another way to engage with a challenging theological concept. It also allowed their teacher to oversee meaningful conversation. 

Using Homeschool Hub also allowed Angie to assign homework and extra content for students to explore outside the classroom. These resources helped to simplify some of the challenges of teaching difficult material. And she didn’t sacrifice the depth or richness of studying biblical truths. 

Looking Ahead

Over the next few posts, I’ll share more about how BJU Press Homeschool has helped us bring together academic excellence, biblical truth, and flexibility at Firmly Planted. I’ll walk through how we’ve 

• adapted the curriculum to our co-op setting, 

• created flexibility for our teachers, and 

• used the many resources available to enrich our classrooms, 

all while maintaining the academic depth and biblical foundation that are so important to us. 

My hope is that other homeschool communities will see what’s possible when we equip parents and teachers with the right tools while keeping families at the heart of the educational journey.