How Much Does it Cost to Homeschool?

Did you know you can give your kids an exceptional and customized education for less than $400/year?

Homeschooling is the epitome of personalized education tailored to your individual child. You don’t have to be wealthy to provide a cutting-edge education for your kids. Many families of modest means around the country and even the world are part of this exciting movement!

As parents, we know our kids better than anyone and also have the greatest vested interest in seeking out the best curriculum and programs for them. In addition to individualized one-on-one teaching, we are fortunate to live in a time when some of the best teachers in the world are offering content online for free.

Homeschool families also recognize the value of libraries. The famous line from Good Will Hunting is not lost on homeschool families:

“You blew $150k on an education you could have gotten in $1.50 in late fees from the library.” — Good Will Hunting

Here is a typical homeschool curriculum for a 4th/5th grader. The cost is around $250/year and would be about the same for most elementary-aged children. Furthermore, many of the purchases can be used again for siblings. Even if you hire a private tutor or outsource a subject to a group instructor, the cost is still significantly less than paying for private school.

Horizons Math Books 1 & 2 plus Teacher Manual–$50 used
A myriad of free math resources
First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Workbook and Teacher’s Manual–$38.50
Story of the World history CD set–$28.50. We check out many books from the library for our history studies. Here are some great links: Story of the Wold booklists for Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, and U.S. History book list. Additionally, we love learning through living history as we travel and go on field trips.
Literature–Free from the library!!! Ambleside Online , Common Sense Media as well as many others provide high quality book lists. Here are some of my family’s favorite books.
D’Nealian Handwriting–$12
Science–A textbook and experiments will cost around $100 for the year. We are part of a co-op, and this is a huge help. Since I don’t love doing experiments myself, it works out great for my kids to do them there.

Additionally, we love going on science field trips and spending time in nature.

Lastly, you could easily do an entire science curriculum using just library books and free online resources without purchasing any curriculum.
Writing Composition–Free! If you choose to purchase a curriculum, IEW is very popular and well-done.
Spelling–Free!
Foreign Language–There are quite a few ways to learn another language online on sites like Memrise and DuoLingo at no cost. Additionally, many local libraries will give you access to foreign language training as a free resource. For instance, our library offers Rosetta Stone’s online program for free.
Dance Mat Typing–Free!

I try to buy used curriculum on Amazon when possible. Additionally, Rainbow Resource usually has the cheapest prices for new items.

Experiential learning is one of the most meaningful and memorable ways to learn. We go on a field trip just about every week as well as engage in extremely hands-on learning activities with our weekly co-op. Homeschoolers should make the most of their homeschooling freedom and deliberately seek out experiential learning opportunities. Spending $250 for the year, you could engage in so many wonderful types of experiential learning and could even do it for a lot less. Nature is free. Many organizations and companies offer free field trips, tours and programs.

A big component of homeschooling is customizing to your child’s passions and interests. Sports, music, technology, and music are a few examples of a program each family can uniquely design for their own children. You will want to factor those costs into your child’s educational plan.

With some research and effort, you can provide your child a cutting-edge, customized education! The homeschool community is extremely generous in sharing information and support. Join our movement. We want you to succeed and are here to help you!

Would you like to share some tips about homeschooling on a budget? How much do you spend homeschooling your kids?

What Will You Change in Your Homeschool This Year?

Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

You greatly seize upon your homeschool freedoms when you adapt and change. You are not locked into a schedule, curriculum or rules like those in conventional schools. You don’t have to go through a teacher, principal or bureaucracy to change what is best for your children. You have complete FREEDOM to customize your children’s education as needs and opportunities change. Additionally, change keeps learning and life fresh and exciting.

You have complete FREEDOM to customize your children’s education as needs and opportunities change.

ferris wheel best day cheer — We took part in a weekly class at Disneyland this year that brought much joy to our family dynamic while also simultaneously being immersed in the creative and innovative genius of The Walt Disney Company.

Here are a few questions to consider:

Do you want to spend more time enjoying your kids?

Are you feeling burnt out?

Did part of your curriculum often result in tears or frustration?

Do you feel you are are spending a lot of time nagging or being negative?

Would you like more homeschool family friends?

Are you looking to offer a greater variety of learning opportunities outside the home to your kiddos?

Would you like to improve your family dynamic?

Change keeps learning and life fresh and exciting.

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then I urge you to evaluate what you should change this year. Now is the time for a fresh start! Talk to your spouse and kids. Ask them what they loved about last year and want to continue and what they did not like. Be in community with other homeschool families and learn from them. Seek out opportunities you never considered before. Pick the brains of parents who have great kids.

Seek out opportunities you never considered before. Pick the brains of parents who have great kids.

Take it from someone who was feeling burnt out about this time last year. I’m glad I made some pretty radical changes. They were a gamble for us but paid off big time on so many levels. We had our most joyful, inspiring and memorable year yet, and I am now more passionate about homeschooling than ever. A big reason I created The Contemporary Homeschooler is for YOU. I want to share my experiences and insights with you as well as learn from all of you and be in community together learning from one another.

While homeschooling is not always easy, when we learn to adapt we can enjoy much success and happiness.

So I ask you, what will you change this year?

If you would like to learn how we changed our schedule this past year, then check out these posts:

Academic Scheduling for More Experiential Learning Part One

Academic Scheduling for More Experiential Learning Part Two

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Academic Scheduling for More Experiential Learning: Part One

We all want to be out doing this!

Instead of this! $Math pic for blog 003$

So, we need to knock those academics out of the way ASAP so we can have some fun.

Last year, we dramatically changed our schedule by being away from home 3 full days each week so we could be involved in a weekly program at Disneyland, another day sailing and another day at our co-op. This did not include other activities like extra-curriculars, field trips, park days, etc. I wondered how we would ever complete our academics so came up with a plan as a family.

This is a series on how to schedule academics so we have plenty of time to engage with the world. This is what we have done as a family and has worked for us. What type of schedule has worked for you?

SET EXPECTATIONS

Before signing up for all the activities, we had a family meeting. The kids had to give their commitment that they would need to be dressed and starting their math at 7:30 AM on days we were to be gone. They would also do their required history/science reading for 25 minutes in the car en route to our activities. Additionally, they would need to do some math over the weekend. Prior to this, they never had school work on the weekend.

CREATE A CHECKLIST

I told my kids what needed to be completed and they used Google Sheets to create their daily check-off list. This had the added benefit of giving them practice with spreadsheets. We will talk about what that schedule looks like in detail in the 2nd post in this series.

YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL

We have always done year-round school. However, because we were out 3 days/week last year and plan to do the same in the fall, we are doing a little bit heavier workload over the summer than we did in prior summers. Sure, we take some days off completely and even a week here and there. A writing composition teacher has come to my house on Fridays giving them assignments to work on each day. That has helped us to stay on track with writing as it is easy for me to skip on that over the summer.

Additionally, it is hot during the summer and crowded with all the conventionally-schooled kids out and about. I’d much rather be knocking out some school work in our air-conditioned house on some of those days and enjoy our beautiful and interesting places with fewer people and better weather.

How do you schedule your academics?

Find Part Two of this series by clicking on the link below:

Academic Scheduling for More Experiential Learning: Part Two

Here were our curriculum choices last school year:

An Example of an Eclectic, Academic Homeschool Curriculum

For ideas on how to design your own writing curriculum:

Designing Your Own Writing Curriculum

You can sign up to follow The Contemporary Homeschooler via email by clicking on the Follow button. Also, join our community on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/TheContemporaryHomeschooler/