The Cost of Homeschooling

To a large extent, the cost of homeschooling is similar to all lifestyle choices. The amount you spend comes down to your own priorities, how much you want to spend and how tight your overall budget is.

It’s no coincidence I’ve put William’s drawing of a fancy rocket-propelled car on here. It 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. If you look at the homeschooling statistics page I’m busy completing at the moment, you’ll see something fascinating.

Research from America proves that the amount you spend on homeschooling does not affect how well your child does.

That’s something worth bearing in mind when you look at the cost of homeschooling.

It proves that, to a large extent, the homeschooling cost is as little or as much as you like. You can also find out here the steps you can take to ensure affordable homeschooling.

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

And there is one inescapable budgetary deficit.

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.

Some UK home school families I know manage with both partners living on State Benefits, as do homeschooling single parents – though they usually manage to earn a small amount extra to keep afloat.

Nonetheless, that just goes to prove you can homeschool on a very low income indeed. In fact, hats off to them – living on State Benefits in the UK is extremely tough under any circumstances.

The Homeschooling Cost: 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. Here, for example, you can watch the delights of liquid nitrogen turning a flower into freezing solid shards at Techniquest homeschool sessions.
• 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.)

The cost per GCSE/IGCSE varies. The average price seems to be about £140 per subject, though it depends on the exam centre and you can pay half or double that depending on the school.

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

The Cost of Homeschooling: What You May Decide You Need

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:

American homeschool families say the cost of homeschooling is from between $300 and say $3,000 per year.

Which is extremely interesting. It goes to prove that, if you really want to homeschool, the cost of homeschooling can be very low and shouldn’t put you off.

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