Homeschooling Day in the Life: Saleena, homeschooling mama to her own kids and also her friends’ kids
A homeschool day in the life looks different almost every day, right? Over on our Instagram page, we love to give you a peek into lots of homeschool days regardless of how they change day to day.
Today, we’re going to give you a peek into the homeschool day in the life of Saleena, homeschooling mama to three of her own children, as well as the kids of two of her friends!
We can all learn and be inspired by one another, regardless of our homeschool approach. It’s not about looking good for social media, it’s about the connection going on inside our homeschool walls and sharing with others what works for us.
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We might all homeschool a little 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!
Meet Saleena
Saleena @homeschoolinghomestead is in her fourth year of homeschooling. She loves Jesus, has three girls on earth and two boys in Heaven, and has been married for 10 years. Saleena was born and raised in Southern California, and lives only an hour from the beach and 30 minutes from the mountains.
Saleena loves being outside gardening and hiking, and exploring new places. She believes that being outside is the best medicine and loves to explore the beauty of God’s creation.
She not only home educates her own three girls, but a couple of times a week she takes in the children of a couple of her friends and educates them as well! Saleena describes her homeschool as eclectic, with a mix of Charlotte Mason, unit studies, and a little unschooling.
Morning
The girls have been sleeping in a little later, which has been so nice. I try to have my quiet time before they get up and the chaos begins. Sometimes it looks like, this with my Bible and journal, sometimes it’s listening to the Dwell app (which I love!) while I am washing dishes or cuddling with the girls on the couch. Sometimes it’s reading and praying over prayer requests. But I try to always start our day out with prayer or scripture.
On school days, the rule in our house is chores before breakfast. The girls wake up, make their beds, brush their hair, and get dressed. Sometimes it’s 20 or 30 minutes before they get started on them because they like to join me on the couch while I drink coffee and have my quiet time. I’ve found this rule has helped us so much with getting our day started instead of the morning dragging on.
School Time
We always start the morning off with calendar and devotional. We are learning the different names of God. Today we learned Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace.
After that, we move into our read aloud. We finished the first book in the series, Wild Robot, before Christmas break and we are on to the second one. While I read aloud, I have the girls work in their hand writing books. Sometimes I have them do reading responses, which can include responding to prompts, predicting what comes next, comparing and contrasting characters, etc.
Then it’s time for a snack break!
Social Studies + Science
After snack time we move on to social studies and science.
For social studies I use Beautiful Feet, which is a literature based curriculum. I started off the lesson reviewing Columbus, which is what we learned about before break. The girls glued a map of Virginia in their social studies notebooks and labeled Jamestown on the map. Today was also an introduction to Pocahontas. I read while they colored a picture of her and her father, super simple!!
We are wrapping up our science unit on animal habitats. Today was about wetlands. They added a definition in their science notebooks, I read them a book and had them watch a short video. To finish up the lesson we did a directed painting of a mallard duck. They turned out beautifully! I absolutely love incorporating art, especially into science. We try to do some sort of art everyday.
After science, we clean up to have lunch.
After school, the girls can’t wait to get outside!! They play until the sun goes down.
Evening
Once I get my house back in order after all the kiddos leave, it’s time to prep/make dinner. On the menu is Mediterranean chicken and salad with basmati rice pilaf, which made my kitchen smell heavenly!
As I sign off, I wanted to leave you with some words of encouragement I have picked up along the way.
💡Homeschooling is such a gift because it gives us FREEDOM to school how and when we want, and to follow their lead. It gives us TIME-their childhood‘s are so fleeting, and we get to experience it right alongside them.
💡 If God has called you to homeschool in this season, then He will give you everything you need. Do your best, and don’t worry about the rest. He will cover it. There are gaps in every education. It is not about perfection or making your school look like mine or anyone else’s. Do what works and serves your family well.
💡 Give yourself grace, mama. You are doing hard, holy work.
I try and have the girls read to me every night before bed. It’s so fun to see their progress and how much they are growing and learning. But even more than that, it’s amazing to get a front row seat at how they are being molded and shaped as a person. What an honor it is to be their mama.
Thank you all for follow along today 💛
Thank you so much to Saleena 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.
