Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Or Maybe Not This Year.

There I was, staring into my washing machine.

You know, the routine. Toss the clothes into the washer. Move them to the dryer. Fold them (well sometimes fold them). Somehow find another pile behind a bedroom door five minutes later.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

I had done this literally thousands of times before, but for whatever reason, I stood there staring at this machine, mesmerized, thinking: what am I doing?

10 years into homeschooling and I had officially hit “the wall”. If you know you know.

My homeschool room was a disaster. The remnants of a full-on child tornado if you will. Books everywhere. Markers without caps. Papers that I was “absolutely” going to organize “later”. And a crayon or two which had clearly lost the battle to the family dogs.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

That was my homeschooling journey as a Mom.

Monday through Friday. Predictable. History, Math, Science, Reading.

Reset the room. Buy the curriculum. Change the curriculum. Question the curriculum. Decide the curriculum was fine. Doubt the curriculum again two weeks later.

Here’s the funny thing: I genuinely like predictability. A checklist and post-it notes go a long way. If I have a schedule, I’m a happy woman.

But I also need a little spontaneity.

A little breathing room.

A little reminder that just because homeschooling always looked one way did not mean that we had to continue it.

My kids asked the other day, “What will school look like this year?”

And the honest answer was:

Different.

And full transparency, I’m excited about that.

This year I’m working. Finding the rogue pieces of myself again. TBH - this feels a little weird. Because let’s be real, when you homeschool for a decade, it becomes a massive part of your identity.

You are the teacher.

The lunch lady.

The chauffeur.

The curriculum researcher.

The mom up way too late Googling at 11:43 p.m., “What is the difference between mastery based and spiral math?”

But here is something I am learning: I do not need to be all those things all the time and neither do you!

Homeschooling with a tutor is still homeschooling.

Taking an online class is still homeschooling.

Dropping your child off at that co-op while you sit and drink coffee in your car in complete silence is still homeschooling.

There is no award at the end of the journey for the mom who did it all by herself.

So, I’m writing this for you mom. Yes, you.

You know, the one staring into the washing machine, washing, rinsing and repeating each school year and wondering how you are possibly going to do it again, all by yourself.

You are allowed to change things.

You are allowed to use an online class.

You are allowed to build a homeschool that supports both your children and you.

So maybe this year doesn’t need to be another round of wash, rinse and repeat.

Maybe this year we mix it up and we dry, fold and put away!

Spontaneity, my friend.

Let’s see where this year takes us!

Your Spontaneous friend,

-Stacey Brown, Pathfinder Founding Mom