A Day in the Life of Homeschool Mama Mary

Here’s a little look at the Day in the Life of Mary, mom of two that has been homeschooling for 10 years and is a huge proponent of music education! 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.

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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!

Meet Mary

Many of you will be so excited to see Mary from @homegrown_learners in action for her day in the life takeover tomorrow. She’s known to so many homeschool families as the Music Mama, as she teaches tons of homeschoolers through online classes and curriculum about music history and appreciation. She’s a mama to two and her oldest is now in college. She is a huge reader and shares the best book suggestions. You will love Mary! Here’s a bit more:

Mary is the mother of two – ages 18 (a freshman in college) and 14 (9th grade). She has been married to her husband, Hal, for 23 years. She has been homeschooling for the past 10 years. As her children have changed her homeschool method and approach have changed – her family has done everything from eclectically interest-led with a Charlotte Mason influence to Classical education.

Mary is a proponent of music education (her undergraduate degree is in music education) and is the author of SQUILT Music Appreciation Curriculum @squiltmusic. She loves reading, music, her sweet dog Lucky, and teaching.

Devotions and Read Aloud

Good morning! We begin every day (as we have for the past 10 years) with devotions and read aloud time. ⁣

I won’t lie – recently I have gotten some pushback from my 9th grade boy about reading aloud, so I am trying to pick engaging books, and have HIM read them aloud to me as well as me reading aloud to HIM. So far so good. ⁣You can see all the books I like to read at @homegrownbookpicks .

This morning it is chilly and we are recovering from a full CC community day yesterday, which was followed by an away basketball game. We arrived home at 10 pm… so I let my guy sleep in until 8 today to catch his breath. (homeschool advantage 874!)

After reading my son gets straight to work and works independently most of the day – with my checking every now and then. Life with an only at home – especially a high school only – is different than it used to be. I am adjusting and still missing the days of nature walks, crafting, baking, and learning with my kids. It’s all about adjusting to new seasons and having faith and grace through it all 

College Life

So… part of my day in the life is keeping up with my college girl. I usually hear from her after her first class of the day. This morning I asked her to tell me what she was up to and send me a picture – because I wanted to share it with the #learningwell community. ⁣

She texts me this: “ You can tell them that walking half a mile to class in 30 degree weather STINKS ?”

Homeschooling prepared her for college. She had a lot of freedom her last two years of high school and learned to manage her time. She is no stranger to doing laundry, keeping a room clean, and communicating in a professional manner with professors.

I am sitting back and watching her SOAR – a big reward for a homeschool mom. I always said you could give me a cruise around Greece when I finished my homeschool career, but this is WAY better! Hang in there mamas! It is SO worth it!! ⁣

If you are wondering about the particulars of homeschool to college – just visit me at homegrownlearners.com and search “homeschool to college”. I have a series all about it!

Music Lessons

Wednesday is piano lesson day. Music is a requirement in our homeschool. (When your mom writes music curriculum it’s kind of a given! @squiltmusic) My children have taken piano, guitar, and sang in choir. I believe music is a gift I can give them that will keep on giving for the rest of their lives.⁣

We are thankful for Fernando, Grant’s teacher. They have a great rapport and he inspires Grant to continue to progress.⁣

Service Projects

Next stop today is an inter generational service project with folks from our church! We love coming to @midwestfoodbankgeorgia to serve!

One thing homeschool has allowed our family to do is foster connections in our church and community. Because of our flexible schedule we can join in these projects – and many others – that we just wouldn’t have time for if the kids were in a traditional school.

Today we picked up our super good friend, Michael, to join us. Michael brightens any day for us. We met him through the special needs ministry at church and now he is one of the family – “Uncle Mikey”.⁣ Grant also asked his buddy Emmett to join us – these unsocialized homeschoolers, you know ?.

Thankful for our blessings – and homeschooling is one of the biggest blessings of all! ⁣

Dinner & Evening Wrap-Up

My afternoon and evening got a bit derailed. I am SO thankful for the chili and glass of wine that awaited me when I walked in the door.

I went to get an iPhone battery replaced and the estimated one hour appointment took three hours. Thank goodness for my husband and his help transporting kids and getting dinner ready, too. (My hubs works from home and enjoys cooking. I am BLESSED.) Confession: we ate in front of the tv while watching Jeopardy!. Don’t judge – we love to do this every now and then.

Tonight I have to make sure my son gets his desk (which is a big hot mess) cleaned up, fold two loads of laundry, and get some blog work done.

Life with just one homeschooler left at home is considerably more quiet – I have no idea what life will be like when he leaves the house. I don’t even want to think about it.

After attending the fun Deep Roots Co-op lunch with friends today I am reminded that this homeschool journey goes so fast – some days move slowly, but as we look back we wonder where all the time went. I hope you come follow me @homegrown_learners . It is my heart’s desire to encourage and equip you in this most important calling to homeschool your precious ones!⁣

Thank you so much to Mary 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.

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