Hi, we're Mai & Pan
A mama who never trained to be a teacher, and a bright-eyed five-year-old who asks better questions than most grown-ups.
How we got here
This is our very first year of homeschooling. Pan is in grade one, and together we're walking the Charlotte Mason path under our provider, Living Learning Homeschool. In practice, that means short, focused lessons in the morning; living books instead of dry textbooks; narration — telling a lesson back in her own words — in place of quizzes; and afternoons left open for handicrafts, nature walks, and the slow, unhurried play that childhood is made of.
We're learning right alongside her. Some mornings the math lesson wins. Some mornings the tantrum wins (sometimes hers, sometimes mine). We show up the next day anyway — and little by little, that showing up is what turns a house into a school, and ordinary days into a rhythm we've come to love.
The basket in our name
At our homeschool orientation, one line settled deep and never left: so much of life happens in the ordinary days — the small moments, the conversations with our children, the quiet faithfulness of simply being present. Like the boy in the story of the five loaves and two fish, we are not asked to feed the five thousand. We are only asked to bring our basket, and to trust that small offerings, given with love, are enough.
Faithfulness in the ordinary. Bring your basket; you don't have to be the whole feast.
That's what this little corner of the internet is: our basket, offered daily. If you're a fellow Filipino homeschooling parent quietly wondering whether you can actually do this — you can. Come and see how ordinary, and how good, it really looks.
What you'll find here
- The Journal — honest notes from our weeks, the sweet and the messy.
- Daily Rhythm — our actual grade one schedule, block by block.
- Brushwork and Music & Hymns — how we do art and music the CM way, with everything we use.
- The Book Basket — every living book on our shelf this term.
- Start-here guides — new to all this? Our guide to homeschooling in the Philippines and a free one on keeping the overwhelm low.