When we decided to homeschool the kids, our primary reason was the pandemic. We do not want to risk our family if the schools will have face to face classes.

Little did I know that it will be beneficial to all of us. First, I am able to detect the weaknesses of my kids and focus on them. Second, I learn and relearn the lessons. We chose the Charlotte Mason method for our kids because when we learned about the method, we instantly fell in love with it. We realized some differences between the traditional and the Charlotte Mason method.

The first benefit is the focus that our kids get once I detected their weaknesses. My Gr. 4 daughter is having a hard time with Math but she has high grades in her school before. I thought she’s ok. But as we go along the Math Enhancement Program, a free math program from the UK, I realized that she’s weak at mental math, multiplication and even addition. So every Math lesson, I try to give her tips (we call them Math tips, which she write on her notebook) like multiplying by 10s or multiples of 5, etc. I also gave her tips on how to add and subtract fast and easily. Also, every session, there are always mental exercises. A separate post will be on our math program.

I also found our that our Kinder is indeed capable of memorizing long poems. He has already memorized one long poem in English, an ongoing Tagalong poem, and ongoing long bible verse (1 Corinthians 13). He is also enjoying his phonics lessons!

For me, I am discovering some new things that I did not learn from the textbooks. For example, the relationship of ants and aphids. And tonight, while I was pre-reading our lessons for next week, I found out about the age of trees. Yes, some people may already know these but I don’t. This is why I am enjoying this homeschool, particularly the Charlotte Mason education and living books.

I told myself that I need to dedicate a night for pre-reading the lessons. This will be my Nanay Culture, a term for mothers’ learning such as reading, painting or learning anything.

We also do Shakespeare for our Gr. 4. We use the Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare. These are summaries of his works made for kids who are not yet capable of understanding old English. The last story we read was King Lear.

So this homeschooling is not only for the kids but also for us. We get more time together, learning together and doing art together. They may be learning in an unconventional way but we trust in the method that our kids will grow up holistically.