First of all let me apologize for the lack of blogs in home schooling this week. Suffice it to say that five children with a stomach virus leaves little time for anything besides laundry. But that’s enough about that!
Awhile ago someone asked me how much home schooling costs. The answer to that is varied and there are several factors that influence how much a family spends. I know families that spend next to nothing, those that spend a small fortune and those that are somewhere in the middle. I will break down for you some of our expenses in home schooling our own children however, I fully recognize that you can do it for less. . .or more.
1. A One Income Family
To me, the biggest “expense” in home schooling is living on one income. Of course many of us would say that we wouldn’t have worked anyways after we have kids. And there are also home schooling families who run their own businesses or where mom works from home. Regardless, if you know you’re going to home school before you have children (and yes, there are moms out there who feel that strongly about home schooling) it will be most helpful if you and your spouse figure out how to make ends meet on one income.
2. Curriculum
You can get by with free curriculum or lower cost curriculum. However, we wanted to put the books on our shelves. Since we use a literature based approach, our curriculum is full of chapter books, historical biographies, as opposed to work books. (Not that there’s anything wrong with buying workbooks either!) We are happy to pay for them.
3. Experiences
Some families may not qualify this as a home schooling expense. We do deliberately. We include memberships to museums, the zoo and the botanical gardens on our IHIPs. We also include trips to concerts, Broadway shows, and other events into our home schooling “curriculum”.
4. Lessons
Keeping in mind that we live in the city, we allow our kids to each take two classes a week. Classes include ballet, tap dance, gymnastics, soccer, and baseball. We use these to fulfill our P.E. requirements. Many families just let their kids run around in the back yard but alas–the city is not full of back yards to play in! (All that to say, you don’t HAVE to put your kids in lessons–but many families do.)
5. Supplies
In our house pencils grow legs and walk away. I call it the greatest science mystery ever construed. In any case, you can be sure that just because you home school you will not be exempt from buying those school supplies. Also consider things like software, learning games, and other miscellaneous items that you might qualify as home schooling.
So I know you’re wondering. . .what’s the grand total? We spend less than $1000 per child per year on home schooling. Some families gasp at how much this is and other families gasp at how much less it costs to home school than to send your child in private school. Is your budget more expensive or less expensive?
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