Our Homeschooling Journey: Year 3 in Review

 Once again, we started our schoolyear a little bit early. But we did not finish off our school as early as we originally thought. Did I feel stressed out about it? A little bit. Not as stressed out as I usually do towards end of school year. Our third grade was full of adventure, new learnings, new friends, new discoveries. It helped that we found our homeschooling cluster. the Padayon Cluster. Last year, we started feeling a little bit alone because we weren't that active yet in our homeschooling cluster. When I decided that I would open up with the homeschooling moms in our community, I found our village.  This was the year that I finally found my groove as a homeschooler. After 4 years of homeschooling, I was finally able to create a system that works for both me and my daughter. During our first grade, I was so overwhelmed. There was so much to learn about the Charlotte Mason Method. There were so many books. It was also my first time homeschooling using CM. There was a lot of traction from my learner and there were so many doubts not just from the people around me but more importantly from myself.  Slowly, we were able to embrace all the changes that happened, we were able to digest all the new learnings as a family. I even got my husband involved in the teaching itself by our 2nd grade. Luckily as well, during our 2nd grade, we found our homeschooling community where I met so many awesome moms. We became friends, not instantly, but only as soon as we all learned to open up to each other. These moms became my support system. They helped me build my confidence, not just as a parent-educator, but also as a crochet mentor, and as a person as a whole. I found that as soon as you remove your doubts and you have people whom you know will back you up no matter what, you can do so many things! For that I am so thankful for my new mom friends.  And so now, here we are, we've finished our 3rd grade. Some of the things went as planned but for the things that did not go as we thought it would, we as a family were able to handle it with grace and love. I can't believe that we have come to this point where we are able to hope for the best, achieve a lot, prepare for the worst, and let go of things we cannot control. ### Taking Charge and Letting Go  Last school year became a lot easier than all the other school years we had because we started it with so much grace. In my mind, I let myself be open to the fact that I cannot control everything that happens during the year. I remember the popular prayer of serenity. > Grant us the ***grace*** to accept the things we cannot change, the ***courage*** to change what we can, and the ***wisdom*** to know the difference. I was watching a series on Netflix when I came upon this prayer and it resonated with me. It helped me work on the things that I can control in our homeschooling journey. This prayer also became my guide when it comes to *choosing my battles.* ### Coming up with a new system I know, it was my 4th year homeschooling last year but I learned to lower my pride and accept that what I was doing, while it did work, still needs to be improved. Before we started the year, the teacher-moms in our cluster decided to have a quick online huddle to share best practices. Although we all attended the same orientation seminar, it still helps a lot to hear each others' experiences. We all took turns in telling each other what worked for them, what didn't, and how they plan on tackling the year's homeschool work.  I streamlined my grading system. This was actually my proudest achievement last schoolyear. I used to pile up all the written works, performance tasks, keepings, and projects, then I would check them every Friday. Now that seemed like a very smart move. I'll be doing the work just once a week, I could just go to a local coffee place, spend a few hours there while checking all the work. But the keyword was *"piling up"*. There are instances that there's just a few papers to check, but there are times that my little learner goes hyper with all her performance tasks and decides to create a lot! I needed consistency. So I decided to grade as we go. Once my learner finishes a copywork, I go ahead and give it a quick and mindful glance, see what needs to be improved, comment on the things she did well, we discuss behavioral patterns, then I grade it. This way, we are able to tackle issues as we see it, real time. This system helped both me and my little person. I also made an easy to compile grading sheet. This way, with just a glance, I can clearly see where we need to focus, which tasks we need to prioritize, and which ones we are ready to let go. During the first 2 years of gradeschool, I noticed that submitting grades and portfolio is becoming tedious, it is slowly taking away the joy of our homeschooling journey for me. Grading as we go, and recording the grades in an easy to make, easy to understand grading sheet helped me focus my energy on much more important things, and made the administrative tasks of our homeschooling easy, enjoyable, and fun. ### More Playdates > *"Never be within doors when you can rightly be without"* -Charlotte Mason My kid is growing up so fast. Soon, she'll no longer be excited with outdoor playtime with friends. So right now, I am having her enjoy her childhood with our 4-day school week, Library day, Free Day Friday, and weekend field trips. We don't really have elaborate plans on how we spend our weekends, I just call up some of my cluster moms, ask if they're busy or not, then have a playdate at a park. They're kids. All they need is a space to play, friends, and some snacks. They occasionally need sticks, dirt, stones, leaves. Pretty much anything under the sun.  These playdates have become my daughter's stress reliever, my way of bonding with other moms, and our way of reconnecting with nature. It also calms my nerves whenever we are going through a phase in our homeschooling journey. The mere fact that I can see that I am not alone in this helps a lot. It is during these playdates that I was able to open up those deep dark sadness I have hidden in me while also listening to my mom friends' struggles and challenges. ### Facing Form 2 Head on! I am still a little bit nervous for our 4th grade. Okay, a whole lot nervous. Who wouldn't be? I have just figured out form 1 (grades 1 through 3), now I am about to enter another chapter! There's not a lot of grade 4 moms in our cluster but now I know that I am not starting from scratch. I have my newly established, more streamlined system, I have my newfound friends, and most importantly, our little happy family with me to take on this new chapter of our homeschooling journey.