How much do you spend on homeschool?

[Anonymous]

I'm considering it for my child. Is there an initial investment? Do I spend more and more every year on supplies? Anybody care to weigh in how they budget homeschool? I have one child in fourth grade. The reason I'm considering it is because of learning delays that aren't being addressed at his public school. He's not making much progress and I know he does better in small groups at his school, and he does really well when he works one on one with me at home. I am beginning to consider that if he did school at home for a year, he might get caught up a bit. I am very motivated to help him and teach him, but I'm not sure if it's affordable.

[Anonymous]

I think it will very much depend on the kind of year you want to spend with your child.

If you want to go on elaborate field trips each week, it will get costly fast.

But if you want to work at home, then it shouldn't cost you very much at all. Do you have a good local library? If you have a list of books you want to use / have your child read and you know this list in advance, you can find out if your library has them, can order them for you from another branch etc.

I think the biggest cost is time - putting your time into planning and then spending time adjusting expectations according to how well things work.

Best of luck I hope it goes well.

[Anonymous]

Like PP said, the library is a wonderful resource.

There are ways to home school for very little money-- but these are also time-consuming (to echo PP) and mean researching (unless you're an experienced teacher) and creating your own lesson plans.

I do choose for the most part to combine curricula (not a huge investment unless you choose to buy one of the expensive ones-- especially if you buy used, or are able to find what you're looking for on homeschool buyers' coop) with outside language, music, art, and sports classes-- and we'd likely do a few of those even if the kids were in school.

But if you're looking for numbers, for instance I spent about $50 on math curriculum (Singapore math) for the year. I use a free language arts program that I download from Core Knowledge for the most part, augmented with lots of library books and grammar/reading comprehension programs I spent about $75 on. Our science book (Nebels) was $30 on Amazon, and I've probably spent about $100 on things we need for experiments (although he tries to use things most people have already on hand). I choose to do geography without a textbook. I spent maybe $30 on a practice workbook for our foreign language.

So you see, it's not too expensive unless you are giving up one spouse's income to do it. A word of warning: there are TONS and TONS of products out there for homeschoolers. It's easy to spend lots of money, and I found that the less experience I had, the more I felt I had to buy everything in order to make sure I was giving my kids The Best Education. Don't buy anything that doesn't have a good return policy!

[Anonymous]

And on the other side, there are curriculae costing thousands of dollars. Some are excellent, particularly the California ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And on the other side, there are curriculae costing thousands of dollars. Some are excellent, particularly the California ones.

The depressing truth is this is because California schools are so completely kaput.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone, this is helpful. The closest library to me is the one in Tyson's Corner. I wouldn't be going on elaborate trips every week, but maybe on occasion if it was relevant and would help teach some topic. I wasn't sure if the schools had some requirements for what supplies a homeschooled needed to use. We are in FCPS, obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone, this is helpful. The closest library to me is the one in Tyson's Corner. I wouldn't be going on elaborate trips every week, but maybe on occasion if it was relevant and would help teach some topic. I wasn't sure if the schools had some requirements for what supplies a homeschooled needed to use. We are in FCPS, obviously.

None. You can do whatever you want as long as your child can pass one of the approved standardized tests (or be evaluated positively by a qualified individual) at the end of the year.

In Fairfax County, the library system is amazing. If you're not acquainted with the library catalog, online resources, and placing holds, it's worth learning about...you can take out 50 books at a time and request books from any one of the Fairfax County libraries, which means one library trip every month could be enough.

[Anonymous]

How much I spend depends on what you consider homeschooling vs. normal parenting expenses-

The biggest cost is the lack of me being a full time employee somewhere.
Other than that, we pay for SN therapies: OT and SPL. We would have had to pay for that anyway because even if DC qualified, we would have had to supplement and it's likely DC wouldn't have qualified for OT. This is our biggest expense other than my not working full-time and one most families don't have to pay for.
Music lessons: but that would have been a regular activity anyway.

Actual curriculum: Math books, approx. $70, mix of Singapore and other stuff
Reading/Writing: I spent a couple of hundred dollars on a curriculum for next year mostly because I needed an open and go book (I work part time, so planning hours are limited). Homeschool classes for art or pe through the parks- about $50 here and there. These add up, but you could easily do everything for free/lower cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone, this is helpful. The closest library to me is the one in Tyson's Corner. I wouldn't be going on elaborate trips every week, but maybe on occasion if it was relevant and would help teach some topic. I wasn't sure if the schools had some requirements for what supplies a homeschooled needed to use. We are in FCPS, obviously.

Homeschool days at a variety of trip places are way cheaper than normal ticket prices. If I remember Mt. Vernon is like $10 for kids, adults free on homeschool days. Maryland Science center has science classes for $5-6 per class. Admission is included if you sign up for classes. Every homeschool day activity I've been to has been well run, well attended, and a really good deal.