*choke* *gasp* Cost of homeschooling

[Mama Calidad]

I've obviously been using frugal homeschooling methods. Most of our resources come from the library, several of the books we've actually purchased come straight from Dover, inexpensive workbooks from Christian Liberty Press or I've Froogled for the best price on what we're using. 1st grade Spanish (reading, grammer - for fluent speakers of Spanish) isn't a really popular subject. My choices seemed to be Rod and Staff or some company with a little booklet that I've never heard of before.

I just ordered the materials (readers, workbooks and teacher's manuel) from Rod and Staff. $44.94 for the materials with shipping (shipped to our mailbox in the US). That's with the 45% discount, because the materials are being taken to Mexico. :jawdrop

What's the most expensive homeschooling curriculum you've purchased? Was it worth it?

[joandsarah77]

haha, try shipping anything (like more then one book) from the States to Australia. P&P (Postage and packaging) always seems to come to about $100 :hunh So now I don't even look at all those yummy :P~ American supply sites. Someone over there offerd me a Fisher Price nativity set free :tu then realized p&p would be $100 no matter how she did it. :td so she couldn't afford top send it. :(

This year we are buying FIAR volume one with reading books and character supliment from the Australian suplier. Were looking at $380 for that. Why? because our dang libaries don't carry the American reading books! :no2

Jo who is very hot here :sun :fan :watermelon

[hsgbdmama]

$45 isn't bad at all -- with homeschooling, you could easily spend over $1,000! I purchased the Five In a Row manuals (a couple used, the rest new) -- the used ones for $10 each and the rest for about $15 each, except for Vol. 4, which I got for $25 (about half of new). The books I have been slowly acquiring, some used, some from library book sales, some from discount places such as The Book Peddlar and Book Closeouts and some from Amazon or B&N in order to fill out an order to get free shipping.

The other way I look at it is by looking at my property tax bill, where we are paying over half of our taxes to our local school district :wow -- and think of the so much better education and environment my children are in. :shrug I look at these small investments as smart investments in my children. :tu

[lenswyf]

We use Sonlight which can seem spendy, but it's really all in the cost of the books. I check a lot of the books out from the library, and just buy the ones that I cannot find locally, which saves a lot of money. If I had more kids I was going to be homeschooling, I'd go ahead and buy the books just to have them in our home library for future use.

[ArmsOfLove]

Oh goodness, $45 for all of that is a great deal :tu

The place I tend to get into trouble is in buying art supplies and paper :O

I also love used curriculum purchases. I got our KONOS timeline for $10 and it had all of the people *cut out already* :grin That's about a $150 purchase. Even though I like their new timeline better I'm fine with the old one :grin

[allisonintx]

I think we spent about $600 on curriculum for six children, and then a further $1000 outfitting an entire montessori style classroom. I'm getting ready to sell off a bunch of the montessori stuff that the children have mastered so well that it's just gathering dust.

[Mama Calidad]

Okay, this may be one of those, "You know that you've been living in Mexico too long when..." things. $45 is about half of my monthly mortgage payment.

It's really fun hearing about the things that y'all have bought! It's like shopping vicariously! :grin

[ShangriLewis]

Okay, this may be one of those, "You know that you've been living in Mexico too long when..." things. $45 is about half of my monthly mortgage payment.

It's really fun hearing about the things that y'all have bought! It's like shopping vicariously! :grin


:giggle That's it!

[Mamatoto]

I'm getting ready to sell off a bunch of the montessori stuff that the children have mastered so well that it's just gathering dust.

:woohoo I'll take it! So far I have bought everything used so I have not spent a lot. But once we get to age 7, I want to do Waldorf so it could get pricey. :doh :think :-)

[Piper2]

It's like shopping vicariously! :grin

Oh, that's the best kind of shopping...cheapest, too! ;)

I bought Weaver Volume I during their early-bird sale, and I think it was something like $160 or $180 for the complete set. We dropped it after about a month. :O I also got a spelling book at the homeschool conference that was somewhere around $20 and I hardly used, either.

I guess the Christian Liberty and Math-U-See stuff we've used since then probably added up maybe a little over $100 total. I've spent maybe around $50 on all the pieces of the new math curriculum we're going to start on next week (most of it used), plus a little extra for manipulatives.

I'm considering going with all Bob Jones curriculum next year, which if I bought it now, would be $400-something. If I stuck with Christian Liberty, it would all be less than $200 for the 2nd grade kit. But that's all new prices, and I'll definitely shop around for used stuff of whatever curriculum I settle on.

[This Busy Mom]

Well, if $45 is half your mortgage, then double that and that's about what I spent last year on 2 kids. Don't ask me how. This year won't be so pricey.... I think I just need Rod & Staff 5th grade English and Singapore math books.

[erinee]

I've actually been able to get by spending less than what it costs per year at the PS. For 1st grade, I had to pay over $100 in textbook rental fees, plus Zach needed a pair of gym shoes to stay at the school. That was in addition to the classroom supply list, which was shared by the entire class. I believe I spent about $50 on those materials. So it was about $200 for the year. I've spent way less than that on HS materials, with what I"m able to get at the library and off the internet.

I think my most expensive HS materials were the FIAR books, which I bought for about $15 each. And of course, they can be used over and over again. I also didn't *have* to have those, as ambleside would be more than enough. i just wanted some hands-on activity to go with our main curriculum.

[righteous mama]

Laura...that's funny! :lol

I also get into trouble with art supplies. I have a pet peeve with dull crayons. So, I'm constantly buying new crayons so they will be sharp for proper drawing. Of course, I don't throw away the dull ones, they go into a dull crayon pile for art projects. Also, we've been using watercolors from tubes for painting. Mary received art supplies for Christmas...that helps reduce cost a bit.

[joandsarah77]

You can get a crayon sharpener.

[J3K]

The most I ever spent on hs curriculum was when my two kids did Calvert. That was well over $1800. And no, it wasn't worth it , but in a way it was , i still use some of their books. Like the greek mythology book.

The least I've ever spent would be this year.
Library , used/trade in books and tons of arts and craft supplies from walmart. (actually cheaper than the $1 store in many things)

[Leslie]

I have a pet peeve with dull crayons. So, I'm constantly buying new crayons so they will be sharp for proper drawing.


I don't bother with crayons anymore, we use colored pencils.

[righteous mama]

We use crayons (fat, skinny, wax...only Crayola and Waldorf type ones), pens (fat and skinny), pencils, poster paint, watercolors...anything we can get our hands on we use.

For Christmas I went to a local art store, found a nice package of watercolor tubes, some brushes on clearance, and a pad of watercolor paper. I know that will go further than toys in our house...ya know. My mom bought her a wood stable for her horses and I just dye'd her some grass green silks to use as grass. My next project is to make some hay colored silks for the horses to "eat". lol

[TulipMama]

I "inherited" a lot of the classic homeschool materials from my MIL, found others used, and was gifted the Veritas Press Phonics Museum. (Which I love, and would spend the big bucks on.)

I was always so careful and so frugal when I was homeschooling. Now, the boys are in school. Ay yi yi. Even with the generousity of the school, the tuition, uniforms (even used), school lunches (I pack), misc fees, school supplies. . . I could have the most generous homeschool curriculum/set up I could imagine!

Yet, praise the Lord. . . Each child, each year. . . School-building school is the best fit for our boys this year, even though I look longingly at homeschooling many days.

*huuuug*

Looking back at the past several years of homeschooling, if I could go back and give myself some advice it would be "Go ahead. . . indulge a bit more on the goodies. . . the Montessori/Waldorf/Classical toys and tools and books. . ."


(Even if it is half of a mortgage payment!)

[SueQ]

The place I tend to get into trouble is in buying art supplies and paper

Oh me, too! :O I try to get all my curriculum/books used or from the library if possible. My extra cost comes in when I end up switching because something didn't work. I do resale it but still loose money on it. I think I have the right match for our 7 yo now! :tu

[LadyBird]

I have no idea when it is time to start homeschooling Elizabeth (she will be 2 the end of Jan)... I mean, I already try to teach her things, but as far as a curriculum goes I am also wondering about what to use, prices etc. I remember when I was in second grade, my mother put us in a private Episcopal school that was pretty advanced academically, and we worked on phonics with some really neat reading comprehension package where we could learn at our own pace etc. We would take out a card that was a about half the size of a letter sized piece of paper and it had a story/paragraphs of some sort on it and all kinds of questions to test for spelling, comprehension etc etc. They were so much fun! I still remember them, but don't remember who made them. Anyone ever heard of such a thing? I would love to get them for the kids. Anyway, I know that is a ways off. But I would like to slowly start building up on the materials so as not to get hit with it all at once. She loves arts and crafts and we do that about once a week with the really messy stuff....I get most everything at Wal-Mart because it is cheap and the only store close. :grin

[SandKsmama]

Hmm, by the end of this year (this is our first year hsing, and I have a K and a 4th grader), I will have spent less than 1/4 of what it cost us to send just ONE of the children to our private school last year. I think I will have spent about 75% of one of our house payments. That includes curriculum, dance class, field trips and everything. And I did not try to be really frugal either. My dh told me he wouldn't even mind if I spent the same amount as our private school tuition, so I'm fine from that end. :-)

It is funny to consider costs, and what that means in different cultural perspectives. :-)

Amanda

[allisonintx]

It would cost us about 20K to send all four children to private school :jawdrop

[PurpleButterfly]

We also consider what it would cost to send dc to a local Montessori school and there is NO comparison. In fact, I always want to go out shopping for hs'ing goodies after looking at what we save in comparison! :P~ Dh recently told me that he wants to pay for a twice-monthly maid service to do the heavy stuff (floors, bathrooms, etc.) because he said it was, "either pay someone to teach our child so you can clean or pay someone to clean while you teach and play with him". Is he dreamy or what? :mrgreen :heart

When ds was 3-4, I felt compelled to buy curriculum and didn't see at that time how young he was (until we got the stuff and I realized then that all he needed was creative play and a few good materials to work with). I spent $$$$$ on Before Five in a Row (still worth it, we also ended up buying FIAR and most of the books which we can use for years with both dc), Weaver Interlock (overpriced even in used condition, and totally opposite from our personal philosophy), and several others before I finally realized we did best with very relaxed and creative learning. The library is our friend! :tu

[Leslie]

we worked on phonics with some really neat reading comprehension package where we could learn at our own pace etc. We would take out a card that was a about half the size of a letter sized piece of paper and it had a story/paragraphs of some sort on it and all kinds of questions to test for spelling, comprehension etc etc. They were so much fun! I still remember them, but don't remember who made them.


It sounds like the SRA cards we used when I was in school.

Before you start investing in curriculum, you might research methods and see what approach you like best. Once you find your approach, it's easier to narrow down curriculum options. And, of course, it's never too early to start collecting nice books and cultural experiences like great music and DVD's.

[Punkie]

I'm really glad that this topic came up :grin I hadn't really thought about it before... I just expected it to be expensive (thousands a year), but I'm seeing that I might've been off.

Our 3 main choices right now are (1) Homeschooling in a CM/classical kind of way (2) Sending the kids to a classical cottage program where we 1/2-time homeschool or (3) Full-time at the Classical Academy. For them to go part or full time will require me to purchase the books they read (besides textbooks), their art supplies, $600 a year for tuition (its a charter school, so this is an additional fee), uniforms (including special outerwear), I will have to volunteer, it is at least an hour of driving each day (gas, time, etc), they will need book covers, field trip money, the list goes on....

I think that maybe I was scared of the cost of homeschooling when it will probably be much MUCH cheaper.

[joandsarah77]

>>will require me to purchase the books they read (besides textbooks), their art supplies, $600 a year for tuition (its a charter school, so this is an additional fee), uniforms (including special outerwear), I will have to volunteer, it is at least an hour of driving each day (gas, time, etc), they will need book covers, field trip money, the list goes on....

:roll Well with benifits such as those.... :laughtears :duck

[Punkie]

:giggle

For some reason, I had never considered it all. It really seems ridiculous when I see it all written out :P~

[PurpleButterfly]

Amanda, you should go check out the hs'ing section at your local library. I am always floored when I visit mine and see that truly I could hs without spending more than a hundred dollars a year for basic supplies. There are just TONS of wonderful books and ideas, both for hs'ers and for school teachers (I get books from both sections).

And then you always have the advantage of thrift stores, back-to-school sales (when we stock up on paper/markers/etc.), educator discounts, classroom supply sales online, and the multitude of recycled materials available simply for the asking (like the ends of newspaper print rolls, scrap paper from print shops and copy stores, etc.

If you do decide to use specific curricula, you can almost always find it at a discount either new or used, from other hs'ers online and locally. I've found many great deals on the www.vegsource.com hs swap boards, on eBay, etc. Or you may choose to use the plethora of guidebooks available for free at most libraries (some of my faves are Totline, Mailbox, and Theme-a-Saurus by Warren Publishing) and a few good workbooks (we especially love Heavenly Helper (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2179715) and A Reason For (http://www.areasonfor.com/HomeSchool/Default.aspx) ).

Be sure to check out:

Learning All the Time
by John Holt
(This is one of the most worthy books I've ever read; helped me in so many ways and was a foundation for my hs'ing approach :tu)

The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom
by Mary Griffith

Homeschooling on a Shoestring : A Jam-packed Guide
by Melissa L. Morgan.

Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,200 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Home Education on the Internet and Beyond by LauraMaery Gold

Plus, hs'ing is just plain FUN and the time with your children so very precious and worthy...it's something you will never, ever regret. :hug :heart

[city on a hill]

Erin, you had to rent text books?? crazy!!

As for crayons, I think i got an electric crayon sharpener at walgreens. It sharpens them back to perfect crayon shape. It cost $2.99

This company is the best for great prices on arts and craft supplies. check out their clearance section:
http://www.ssww.com/

[erinee]

Erin, you had to rent text books?? crazy!!

Yes, and it caught me completely by surprise. Where I grew up, our textbooks were free. I had no idea we would have to pay for such things. I always thought taxes took care of that.

[AttachedMamma]

Kym,

great info :tu

I was hoping we wouldn't have to spend a lot of $ on curriculum and am glad to hear that others are hs'ing frugally. :phew Actually, I was thinking we wouldn't ever buy a pre-packaged curriculum at retail--ever. We have a hodgepodge of stuff, but then again, we're not doing a lot of "organized" hs'ing. I'm thinking we'll be taking an eclectic approach based on DD's learning style.

cindi