Until recently, most homeschooling decisions were based solely on the needs of the parents and their children. During the COVID-19 epidemic, however, many parents chose to homeschool their children for health and safety reasons rather than academic, social, or religious reasons. Rather than sending their kids back to school, some parents may continue to educate them at home.
Many parents, for whatever reason, want to know what kind of economic effect they may anticipate and how they can plan and budget for the next school year. What’s the good news? Each year, between 3% to 4% of school-aged children in the United States are homeschooled. As a result, we have access to a wealth of knowledge and counsel.
To gain a better picture of how much homeschool costs, we looked at internet surveys and statistics from recognized homeschool sites and feedback from two families: one who homeschooled two children for grades K-12, and another who opted to homeschool their children to COVID-19.
Costs of Homeschooling
To begin homeschooling, you’ll need the following materials:
- Computers and other electronic gadgets
- Each child’s curriculum and textbooks
- Lamps, desks, and chairs
- Field outings and extracurricular activities
- Internet access is available.
- Pencils, pencils, and paper are examples of school supplies.
How Much Does Homeschooling Cost?
The most time-consuming aspect of this procedure will most likely be selecting a curriculum. Unless you hire a private tutor or instructor, it will also be one of the more costly options. The Home School, Legal Association, estimates that parents spend between $50 and $500 per pupil on curricula. The cheapest option is $50 to $100 per pupil, the most affordable is $300 to $500, and the most costly is above $500.
She educated her two children at home from kindergarten to grade 12. Although curriculum providers offer curriculum guides and instruction manuals with all the bells and whistles, she claims that most of them are useless. With frugality, a family may anticipate spending $500 to $1000 on curriculum and resources each year, according to Thomas. Purchasing all a seller has to offer on the high end might easily cost $300 to $500 every grade, per topic! However, following this method might cost upwards of $5,000 per pupil every year. That’s a steep price to pay for education.
Expenses for books, school supplies, and other items
Even if you aren’t shopping for tissues as part of your back-to-school shopping, you will need to buy supplies for your child’s classroom. According to a Deloitte back-to-school poll from 2020, households anticipate spending an average of the following on supplies:
- $395 for computers and hardware
- $316 for electronic devices and subscriptions
- $102 for school materials.
This is a per-child expense because most parents polled anticipated their children to undertake part or all of their education at home. Technology is an expensive investment, particularly utilizing an online course. A PC, tablet, or Chromebook should cost between $250 and $1,000. It’s fantastic if kids can share a single gadget.
If not, be sure to include it at its expense and internet connection. If numerous family members need to use the internet simultaneously, you may need to upgrade your plan to allow for quicker connections. You may need to acquire extra textbooks depending on the curriculum you choose. Many families have a well-stocked library at home to support language arts and independent reading time with fiction and non-fiction works.
Before COVID-19, borrowing books from the library was a great way to save money. Many public libraries shuttered their doors during the lockdown; thus, borrowing books was not always possible. Most libraries, however, have reopened. Consider utilizing free choices as much as possible to save money on books and school subscriptions. Free programs may be found at Khan Academy and Varsity Tutors.
Loss of earnings
Homeschooling, as opposed to distance learning with the help of the local school system, often necessitates the involvement of a parent as the instructor. If you have a two-parent family, one parent may remain at home and take this job. This entails a loss of income for some households. With that in mind, you’ll need to plan out a year without earning any money to determine whether it’s feasible. If eliminating one income isn’t an option, the stay-at-home parent can explore working part-time in the evenings or weekends.
If you have the ability in a definite area and need money, try starting a co-op where parents share the responsibility of educating children’s classrooms. According to Thomas, a parent could anticipate spending $350 or more per pupil for a year-long course. However, certain states, like Indiana, provide tax incentives for homeschooling. For further details, see your state’s tax regulations.
Putting Together a Homeschool Pod
Christina Cay is a mother of two and the founder of C’MON MAMA, a blog on parenthood and everything it entails. They’ve never considered homeschooling. They elected to keep their two young children at home due to the COVID-19 problem. Cay states that since she has two young children who are not made to sit in front of a computer for virtual learning, she and her husband decided to join a homeschool “pod” with two other families so that their children may experience play and socializing in a secure environment.
To do this, the three families engaged two professors to lead the pod, and despite the high expense, they believe it will be worthwhile. We have a significant financial effect since we pay a premium for our private professors. They established an hourly fee per kid per instructor to ease budgeting, and they will pay on the 1st & 15th of each month. Having a fixed pay scale and timetable in place helps standardize things and has aided in budgeting.
We used the homeschool curriculum pod to cost about $1,000 and included all additional materials except basic school supplies like markers, composition notebooks, and other needs. According to various internet sites, parents are ready to spend up to $250 per child every week intuition. This varies, with some parents spending up to $1,000 a week for daily one-on-one instruction.
Conclusion
There are additional costs associated with homeschooling your kid. Homeschooling costs range from $700 to $1,800 per kid, per year, depending on your inventiveness, access to free web resources, shared materials, and a good curriculum. Expect to spend many hours studying best practices and learning from other parents if you are new to homeschooling and looking for methods to save money. It might be intimidating to get started, but there are many resources and experienced families ready to assist.
