The Cost Of Homeschooling:
Is It More Expensive Than School?

So which costs more: homeschooling or sending your child to school? To find out, I asked my 19,000 Facebook fans to share their experience.

What you'll find is that, to a large extent, the cost of homeschooling is similar to all lifestyle choices.

My son William’s drawing of a fancy rocket-propelled car illustrates the point beautifully.

Who wouldn’t want to own a car like that?

Our real version has done over 100,000 miles, is 12 years old and has lichen growing round the window seals. But we still get reliably from A to B.

So far anyway!

What more do you need?

And that's a very important point.

There are plenty of brilliant free on-line homeschooling resources for you to use to teach your child right through high school.

To prove the point, this infographic features the best free educational websites so you can see for yourself that teaching your child at home doesn't have to cost much - and is also far more effective and successful.

Which Costs More: Homeschooling Or Sending Your Child To School?

"For us it's public school. Honestly. My kid carried her lunch and we had to provide our own snacks so that's a draw but my curriculum is less than the fundraiser fees that were pretty well mandatory.

I buy supplies as we need them instead of having a set list that ended up being returned because they never used it or they changed it from class to class so my supply list is much less. And that doesn't mention school clothes.

What it does cost more of, my time."

~ Eva, homeschool-activities Facebook fan

"We've done Private, Public and now, homeschooling. Private for us was most expensive, almost $10K, plus uniforms, plus supplies, other fees not included in tuition, the gas to get there, come home, go back pick-up and come back home.

I can't put a price tag on homeschooling though, my children are my everything. As parents, we don't get very much time with them before they become adults. I want to be a sponge, very much like they are and soak up as much time with them as possible. You just can't put a price tag on that."

~Kim, homeschool-activities Facebook fan

What Are The Costs of Public School?

It's easy to forget what you have to pay if your child goes to public school:

"Public school was way more. New dress code conforming clothes and shoes every few months, fundraisers, class parties, constantly supplying things like paper towels/wipes/etc, lunch money or sending lunch daily, new backpacks, gas money or bus money, after school care.

Not to mention the emotional toll it took fighting every single morning to get them out of bed at 530am so we could get breakfast, dressed, to school and parked by 730 because school started at 8 and they had to be there by 745. They had to be walked to the classroom every morning and picked up in person every afternoon. It was a nightmare."

~ Lindsey, homeschool-activities Facebook fan

Beba goes on to give even more detail:

"For me school cost more and stressed me more. Public school is not free.

• You have to buy a list of supplies at the beginning of the year for around $100-$150.
  
• Every week they ask for something else, you have to budget at least $10 more a week to be covered.
• Lunch if you child doesn’t bring from home $3-$6 a day.
• Shows $500 each for participation.
• Rental of chorus uniform $89 per year.
• Locker $50 a year.
• If they participate on any program (like theater) that's $150 per participation plus they expect your child to help with fundraising.
• If they compete local, state or national is another $$$ depending on where they go, stay, clothes and food. Being a chaperone also costs money because you have to pay for you too.
• Fieldtrips $$$( my son went out state that was $1,300) just for that fieldtrip.
• Gasoline to take and pickup my son to school, 2 hours a day = $$ to me wasted waiting on the school line for him to get out.
• Donations that they always ask for.

Yearly we budget $2,500 -$3,000 for my son to go public school and always we had to put more money to be covered. I'm talking Middle school and High School.

~ Beba, homeschool-activities Facebook fan

If you look at the research into homeschooling, you’ll see something fascinating.

So you don't have to spend loads to make sure your child does well at home.

To a large extent, the homeschooling cost is as little or as much as you like.

And, of course, you don't have to pay all the bills you would if your child went to school like school supplies, field trips, special programs or other "extras."

Nonetheless, you need to know which bills are the ones you can’t escape.

And there is one inescapable budgetary deficit.

My husband Rob and I are living on one income.

Most homeschool parents choose to have one person at home with the children, though obviously that could be both partners working part-time.

However, that just goes to prove you can homeschool on a low income because thousands of people are doing it already.

The Cost Of Homeschooling: What You Have To Pay

These are the basics you can’t escape:

• Higher home energy bills.
• A computer (almost obligatory these days).
• Membership of national homeschool organisations.
• Legal association dues (US only).
• Travel to and from homeschool groups plus a contribution to cover hall hire etc.
• Entrance costs for educational visits to castles, museums, parks, zoos etc.
• Cost of educational sessions run by outside organisations.
• Stationery and, particularly, craft materials (my weakness!)

In addition, in the UK one essential cost you’ll face is if you decide to enter your child for High School exams (GCSE, IGCSE, A/As, Open University etc.)

You also have to pay the exam centre, which costs on average £40 per exam.

It's probably best to budget £150-200 per subject for exam costs and if you find it cheaper, that's a bonus. You may also need to factor in travel costs, depending on where you live.

There's no doubt some families do find homeschooling costs more. But listen to Beth:

Other Costs

These will vary according to how you choose to homeschool:

• Curriculum course fees (can be very expensive)
• Tuition fees for specific subjects
• Workbooks and Textbooks
• Educational software

Finally, there’s the cost all parents incur to a greater or lesser degree:

1. BOOKS to encourage your child’s interests - in our case anything from Asterix to astronomy.
2. Educational activity kits and toys (blast-off bottle rockets are a favourite as well as an electronics kit and the super-inventive Lego.)
3. Microscopes, binoculars, telescopes, sewing machine as appropriate.
4. The cost of outside activities your child enjoys e.g. swimming, sailing, chess club, drama, tennis lessons, snow boarding…

I would add: the cost for a family pet – but maybe that’s just me!

Seriously, though, in the US:

To give just one example, this is what Beba pays:

"Homeschool: We spend money just on extracurricular classes. Fieldtrips I have a local private group on Facebook and plan fieldtrips usually for free. Extracurricular $200 a month and she takes Acting, Dance, and Singing. Lunch we make at home. Curriculums you can resell and get part of your money back for next school year. Also the community are always giving away curriculum and games etc. to share with other families and you can find resources for free.

Recent statistics show that:

You can see some tips for cutting the cost of homeschooling here, including this great infographic on the best free online educational websites.

All in all you can keep the cost of homeschooling very low and there are ways to make it affordable.

Let's leave the final words to Eden about why sending your child to school is more expensive than any money:

Pages To Enjoy

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