A Day in the Life of Homeschool Mama Brittany
Here’s a look at the Day in the Life of Brittany, homeschooling mama to four kids, who loves leaning into the seasons and the different learning styles each one brings. At Learning Well, we understand that homeschooling doesn’t look the same for all of us. We understand it doesn’t have to either for us to learn and glean good things from each other. Each Wednesday, on our Instagram feed, we feature a new homeschool mama to take over the feed and show us what her day looks like.
Some of us homeschool for religious reasons and that inspires our homeschool days. Some of us homeschool from the road and never do school in the same place twice. We might have been homeschooling for years and years. Or we may have just begun our journeys. We understand that those details don’t really matter though. The common thread that binds us all together is our desires to educate our children differently.
We might all homeschool differently, but we can always look for ideas from each other that inspire, encourage and equip us in our own homeschool days. So, each week, we create blog posts for you to access later of each of those “days in the life”. We hope you keep coming back for more inspiration. Keep going, mama! These days at home are so worth it!
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Meet Brittany
Brittany and her family live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas of California. She and her husband have four children ages 9, 6, 4 and 1 and she is currently wrapping up her third year of homeschooling.
Brittany and her family love to adventure together by camping in the summer and exploring on a sunny day in the winter. They love visiting Yosemite and the many beaches of Southern California.
While she mostly leans toward Charlotte Mason methods of schooling, Brittany also loves elements of a classical style and unit studies to help enrich their learning experience.
Follow along as Brittany shows us her day in the life!
Good Morning!
Good morning Learning Well Community! Welcome to my home for the day as I take you on a “Day in the Life”. My name is Brittany (Brit) @singing.arrows . I am from Northern California nestled in the mountains where I was born and raised. I have 4 kiddos earth-side and one little arrow in heaven. My oldest (Amelie ) is 9 years old and in fourth grade. My second daughter is 6 (Avarie) and in 1st grade. My son (Abram) is 4 years old and in preschool. And my youngest daughter (Avonley , pronounced like in the book Anne of Green Gables) is in little miss distraction mode?.
I took my oldest out of our local private school after 1st grade. There wasn’t a problem with the school at all, I just kept wanting to be a fly on the wall, and helping in the class never felt like enough time . So with much prayer and stirring we felt drawn into research and eventually made the decision to go for it. We like to say we are year by year homeschoolers and each year we just keeping going for it?.
I’m happy to share with you today some of our daily rhythms. Its not as perfect as Instagram can always make things out to be; there is a lot of real life behind these squares. I will just be showing you all what some days look like along with explaining what other days look like, since we all know everyday is a little different. Thank you for being here!
Memories to Hold Onto
“Don’t forget that what you are creating now is what they will enjoy talking about then.” @juliebravewriter
It really is easy to forget as we go about our day that memories are being made, friendships are being formed and little hearts are being molded.
Our children are individually made, unique in every way. And so my friend are we. As grown adults we have grown into our own beings and we can continue to grow, learn, and change if we let ourselves just like our children…keep growing. The learning, growing and memory making never really stops. ?
I love looking into others Day in the Life and grasping any tips or tricks that can help me along this journey. We all have our unique ways of going about it and can really inspire and help each other along the way. Trying what may help us and pressing into our own strengths as individuals knowing what works for us. Leave out the pressure but enjoy being inspired.
A few small memories I hope they remember most are simple treats like steamers and popcorn during school, lots of conversation over breakfast or tea time, loads of free time play with each other, putting on theatre production in the living room and so many “just because” adventures! What are some memories you want to hold onto that you are creating?
Homeschooling With Littles
Let’s talk about about homeschooling with the littles for minute. ??
It’s a whirlwind as we all know, and the days and seasons seem to look different and change so quickly. This can make it hard to ever feel like anything is being accomplished or checked off. As someone who really enjoys having that list and marking it off, I have really had to learn to be flexible and somewhat unschool. This can be so hard because in my mind it seems like nothing is being retained, learned or taught well. The younger years are an intense juggle but as each year passes I am seeing the fruit as we go. They really are picking up on more than we know, and they honestly absorb what they want to hold onto as they grow.
The babies and toddlers in the mix may totally throw us off and at the end of the day make us feel as if everything seemed less then ideal. But they are learning! The babies are picking up on things and the older ones are as well, simply by living out the days together.
This really is a hard area to press into and trust the process, but talking with friends who have lived this out and now have grown children will say, it’s going to be okay! It’s the the planting years, and the growth is coming! The days are long but the years are fast! Have grace on yourselves mommas. Do what is best for the day and lay down any pressure. Trust the process, and rest in the wild days. Telling myself this too as I write to you all! ???
Outside Adventure Schooling
As we all know, each day looks very different. Depending on the weather, the stages of our kids, and circumstances around us, the daily schedule can shift pretty quickly. We may have our own unique rhythms that we beat to according to our family’s personalities that is so good for us all, but I have noticed I have to hold them lightly when times are just a little harder than others. High expectations can really bring forth a lot of disappointment. I have benefited so much from learning how to incorporate better flows throughout our days.
I think homeschooling has really helped me figure out our unique beat, verses beating to anyone else’s routine. We have been able find who we are as a family and develop and do what we love. So as our days are ever changing I am learning to see the beauty in going with the flow more and more, holding onto our rhythm but trying to be more relaxed about them. Like breathing in and breathing out. Our days are filled with inhales– working on school work, and exhales–lots of outside ADVENTURE SCHOOLING!
Our family loves adventures, and when the weather warms up we will take a lot of spontaneous little outings. Beating to the drum of the weather at times. It makes those raining days doing academics so much more enjoyable and doable.
Community is Essential
Thank you all for following along my Day in the Life. I have enjoyed talking with some of you and showing you bits of our day.
I feel so thankful for this time on here and this space that Alicia has created at Learning Well, especially in this time we are in. We are not alone mommas! We aren’t meant to go at this alone! Community is huge! Places and spaces like this are so greatly beneficial. Not to compare but to invite us in to be inspired and encouraged.
If you are having a hard time finding a community, I encourage you to start your own. Be the one to reach out and organize things. Zoom isn’t ideal but I promise just connecting any way we can on here is better than nothing at all. We are all in this together ?.
Side note…this picture was taken by my husband a couple months ago. I have been putting together a slide show of our year of homeschooling and realized I am barely in any pictures. I’m fine with that except when I think about when my daughter went to school, her teacher was in class photos often. I ENCOURAGE you to get in those pictures every now and then! You will look back on them with so much joy!
Thank you so much to Brittany for sharing your family’s day with us!
If you want to see more Day in the Life photos and videos, be sure to check out our Instagram profile. There are highlights of each takeover at the top.
