A Day in the Life of Mahana

Welcome to the new "A Day in the Life" series! This weekly string of blog posts will feature individuals or families here on the Big Island, describing what "a day in the life" (or a week!) of a homeschooler is like. This weeks post is by 17 year old Mahana, from Hawaiian Paradise Park, Big Island.

A Day in the Life of Mahana

My Name is Mahana Lynn Keikiwahinehiwahiwaiho'oumamaionaakuokamakua Stephens. 

I am the second oldest of 10 kids. I am seventeen years old and I just got accepted to Brigham Young University! 

I've had the opportunity to be homeschooled my whole life. This has helped me so much in my growth and has shaped me into who I am today.
It's hard to pinpoint what a day was like in my home school because most days were different; We went with whatever worked best for us that day. With a huge family like mine It was hard to set strict schedules. But my overall home school experience was Rockin Awesome! I am so grateful for my Mom and her patience and choice to home school us.

My home school days usually consisted with a devotional in the mornings with my mom; which meant opening song, prayer, and a chapter from whatever book my mom had chosen for that month (or until we finished it). Then we would get our daily assignment of homework. Which included the basics:

•  Math- We would have worksheets, and then me and my sister Lia would get together and do flashcards. My mom would test us on Fridays and check out our progress.

•  Reading and Writing-We were assigned a reading book and we would have to read a chapter a day and write a report about what we read. We were also required to find ten words out of a dictionary and practice them all week. We had spelling and vocabulary tests on Friday.

After the basics were done we were able to focus on what we wanted to learn. Me and my sister were able to go to hula class and work on Personal Progress, which was a program our church developed.

Home school was such a good experience for me. I liked it so much better than regular school because I was able to learn what worked best for me and there was no such thing as bad grades. We had to do it until we got it right, which made it possible for me to actually know and memorize the things I needed like multiplication and formulas for figuring out fractions and other tough problems.

It also wasn't just about school work. My mom would put us to work in the home doing chores and teaching us to cook and to care for kids. We were required to work on character as well. Every now and then my mom would have us pick someone we admired and we had to choose a quality that they had that we wanted to develop in ourselves and we would work on it for a few weeks.

I think that's one of the things I love most about home school even if we hadn't been assigned to develop quality traits, home school builds good character. We don't have all that negative peer pressure everyday and we are able to work in an uplifting environment surrounded by family. Home school also helped me build stronger relationships with my family members, they were my closest friends and my parents were always there for me to help me through whatever problems I had.

10/12 of the Stephen's family!

I'm now starting a new chapter in my life by going off to college. I know the college experience is going to be way different from what I'm used to but I know that home school has helped me to fully prepare. I have obtained a love of learning. I am preparing to get a degree in Elementary Education. Because of the foundation and the strong relationships with my family that I've built during my home school experience, I know I can stick it out no matter how hard. I know I have their support and love which gives me confidence that this will be a great and exciting endeavor.

Thank you so much Mahana, for sharing your story with us. Blessings to you on your way to college--may all your goals and aspirations come true!