Blog not as home page? only snippet

Can anyone show me the best way to make a site in wordpress where the home page has just a snippet of the most recent blog post among other things I want on it, then the whole blog shows on another page, (named and linked blog or something)

Im so confused on if I should make the whole site right in WP, in main directory, or have my own directory for the blog and link it to the site

if someone can show me a site that walks me through this or if you could give me a step by step overview of how to do this I would be SO appreciative.

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