Homeschooling - The Cost of Financing
Mary Lanphier
August 27, 2006
When a child is sent to public school, our tax dollars pay for the education. Sure, we have to contribute extra for lab fees, uniforms, certain school supplies and other odds and ends.
However, financing homeschool can be totally different. Alot depends on the curriculum being taught, the age of the child, the structure of the learning, etc.
When people talk about teaching their children from home in the absence of any definite or structured curriculum, it is perhaps natural to think that homeschooling is cheap. But this is far from the truth. Although homeschooling does not stick to any particular text, this is perhaps more of a bane than a boon, when it comes to finance.
When you need to make sure that your children receives state-of-the-art education so that they can compete with regular school goers, expenses will naturally mount. The actual cost of educating a child at home is surprisingly high. Up-to-date textbooks, course materials, a library, computing equipment, lighting, specially designed furniture all cost money. In this case, the cost may be slightly less when it comes to homeschooling the second child. Add to this any additional tuition cost for tutors who come to teach subjects that cannot be handled by parents, like higher-level math or science and the total cost can be a bit mind boggling.
If you take another important factor into consideration, homeschooling costs may effective triple. The need for having one of the parents tied to the house and fully dedicated to providing education deprives the family of a second earning member. The average homeschooling teacher is usually a lady with a college degree. This means that she can easily bring home a pay of $35,000 or more. It is also interesting to note that most families that have more than 2 children do not opt for homeschooling at all.
But, there are those who have been successful in carrying out homeschooling at low rates. This is dependent on the size of the family, the support group, the type of materials used and the availability of the material. When successive children can reuse the materials, cost goes down. Much of the course material can be obtained from vendors of homeschooling materials. A membership in a public library, theatre, concerts, ballets and other cultural events also help in cutting costs.
Sometimes, it is even possible to barter expertise. For instance, the mother of an 8-year old gives piano lessons, and her daughter receives drawing classes for free. Support groups allow you to divide the cost of field trips, science projects and fairs.
Still, others recommend a home based business to bring in the "extra" for the cost of homeschooling. There are many legitimate opportunites that are to be found if one looks.
There is also vast amounts of information to be found on the web concerning free lesson plans, etc. Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,200 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Home Education on the Internet and Beyond LauraMaery Gold and Joan M. Zielinski provide a ton of ideas and resources on how to do just that.
It might take a little time but typing in "free school supplies" in Google or Yahoo will yield more than your share of free samples.
Whatever the cost, advocates of homeschooling say that the benefits far outweigh these considerations. When you are able to decide what knowledge your child receives and when he or she should be taught and to what extent, it gives you a lot of freedom and a lot of power. Both the children as well as the parents benefit from this mutually enriching experience.
So, in the end, what exactly IS the definition of cost? Is it money? Time? Or is it something a bit more personal, such as the cost of a great education, or the cost to the homeschooler in terms of what they could loose by going to public school.
Here again, financing is just food for thought. Homeschooling is a wonderful alternative but one that cannot be taken lightly and one that must be planned.
However, financing homeschool can be totally different. Alot depends on the curriculum being taught, the age of the child, the structure of the learning, etc.
When people talk about teaching their children from home in the absence of any definite or structured curriculum, it is perhaps natural to think that homeschooling is cheap. But this is far from the truth. Although homeschooling does not stick to any particular text, this is perhaps more of a bane than a boon, when it comes to finance.
When you need to make sure that your children receives state-of-the-art education so that they can compete with regular school goers, expenses will naturally mount. The actual cost of educating a child at home is surprisingly high. Up-to-date textbooks, course materials, a library, computing equipment, lighting, specially designed furniture all cost money. In this case, the cost may be slightly less when it comes to homeschooling the second child. Add to this any additional tuition cost for tutors who come to teach subjects that cannot be handled by parents, like higher-level math or science and the total cost can be a bit mind boggling.
If you take another important factor into consideration, homeschooling costs may effective triple. The need for having one of the parents tied to the house and fully dedicated to providing education deprives the family of a second earning member. The average homeschooling teacher is usually a lady with a college degree. This means that she can easily bring home a pay of $35,000 or more. It is also interesting to note that most families that have more than 2 children do not opt for homeschooling at all.
But, there are those who have been successful in carrying out homeschooling at low rates. This is dependent on the size of the family, the support group, the type of materials used and the availability of the material. When successive children can reuse the materials, cost goes down. Much of the course material can be obtained from vendors of homeschooling materials. A membership in a public library, theatre, concerts, ballets and other cultural events also help in cutting costs.
Sometimes, it is even possible to barter expertise. For instance, the mother of an 8-year old gives piano lessons, and her daughter receives drawing classes for free. Support groups allow you to divide the cost of field trips, science projects and fairs.
Still, others recommend a home based business to bring in the "extra" for the cost of homeschooling. There are many legitimate opportunites that are to be found if one looks.
There is also vast amounts of information to be found on the web concerning free lesson plans, etc. Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,200 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Home Education on the Internet and Beyond LauraMaery Gold and Joan M. Zielinski provide a ton of ideas and resources on how to do just that.
It might take a little time but typing in "free school supplies" in Google or Yahoo will yield more than your share of free samples.
Whatever the cost, advocates of homeschooling say that the benefits far outweigh these considerations. When you are able to decide what knowledge your child receives and when he or she should be taught and to what extent, it gives you a lot of freedom and a lot of power. Both the children as well as the parents benefit from this mutually enriching experience.
So, in the end, what exactly IS the definition of cost? Is it money? Time? Or is it something a bit more personal, such as the cost of a great education, or the cost to the homeschooler in terms of what they could loose by going to public school.
Here again, financing is just food for thought. Homeschooling is a wonderful alternative but one that cannot be taken lightly and one that must be planned.
Print
Email
