It's Cheaper to Homeschool than Public School
News Flash! Homeschool - The Frugal Choice!
Parents concerned about the cost of homeschooling their children should compare costs. According to thisarticle.. most parents will spend $527.08 on school supplies to send their children to school.
I spend less than that.. and so does every other homeschooling parent I know.
Here's a breakdown of our costs:
$435.00 Deluxe My Father's World package for second/third/fourth grade. (it covers history, science, literature, writing.. basically everything except penmanship, spelling and arithmetic).
$50.00 for "classroom" type supplies and teaching tools, anatomical charts, maps, paper for arts and crafts and a "real" painting kit (acrylics, with "real" brushes and paper.. it's not a kiddy craft thing).
$3.00 for plain pencils
$15.00 for a good electric pencil sharpener (our big "luxury" item!).
$50.00 (rounded up) for supplemental curriculum from Abeka, Rod and Staff, and a "home economics" primer.
Last year.. I spent about $30.00 on clearance or "back to school" things like crayons etc.. and STILL have two large totes full of arts and craft supplies.. so I'll count that $30.00 towards this year too.
My son's (1st and K4) are using hand-me-down curriculum from my DD, and all I needed to buy was new writing tablets, erasers and pencils (already covered above).
That's $583.00. I'll add an estimated $50.00 in extra printing costs (paper, toner) and that brings us to
$ 633.00 for educating my three oldest children for the year. Not bad.
Aside from curriculum, supplies and teaching tools... (as it's obvious we've saved money already).. here's the other ways homeschooling saves us money.
1. Lunches. We wouldn't qualify for "free lunch" programs, so I'd either pack a lunch, or send money... either way, it costs at least $1.50 per "bag lunch" or to buy... so that'd be $270.00 per full time student ($540.00 for both). At home.. we eat simpler, lots of leftovers, and my average cost to feed all of us (me and the four eaters) for lunch is $2.50. Figuring that my DD8 and DS6 eat nearly as much as I do.. that's a savings of $360.00 just for lunch.
2. School clothes. We are blessed to get lots of hand-me-downs, and I usually only buy two "nice" day outfits a season per child. Because the hand-me-downs wouldn't work really well for school(either too bummy, or too "churchy"), I'd have to buy lots more clothes. That'd be for three children.. since my two boys are wearing the same size (6). Figure a minimum of $15.00 per outfit X 2 children x 8 days worth plus $15.00 X 1 X 3 days (preK), and that's ANOTHER $360.00 that I don't spend thanks to homeschooling.
3. Fuel. Assuming we allowed our children to go on the bus (a false assumption btw).. I'd still have to take my 4yo to preschool and pick him up every day. If he went three days a week, I'd use a gallon of gas every day just to get him there. So.. that'd be around $324.00 in extra fuel costs. If they went to private school (much more likely).. it'd be a total of $1040.00 just in fuel costs.
4. Birthday parties/teachers gifts/etc. I'm just taking a wild guess.. but if they went to three parties each per school year (this would be extra.. since we don't "know" these kids already).. and we spent just $7.00 per gift, plus a gallon of fuel $3.00 per party.. per child.. that's $90.00 (a low figure, according to my SIL), and if we gave three teachers gifts per child at Christmas.. that be another $50.00 at least. so.. $140.00.. which is a low estimate.
So far, what do we have?
Lunch-----$360.00
School Clothes------ $360.00
Fuel---------$324.00 (a very unlikely minimum.. but assuming our children rode the bus)
Birthday/extra holiday $140.00
For a total of.........$1194.00
That $1194.00 is BEFORE the "average" outlay of $527.08 per student. So.. if we did that.. it'd cost us a total of $2775.24 just for the priviledge of letting the NEA get ahold of my children's minds. (oh... did I mention their latest resolution to teach INCEST in schools???? oh, yeah.. I'm SO interested in my kids learning that kind of stuff as alternative lifestyles... ick.)
IF... on the other hand(and much more likely if we didn't homeschool).. my children went to our "inexpensive" but very well ranked Christian school (they are in the 90th percentile nation wide of all students consistently)... it'd cost us much, much more.
Tuition would be $585 per month, or $5265.00 for the year (that would be for all three children.. but still!)
Plus $4500.00 for lunches, school unifoms, fuel, and holiday/birthdays. Total (minimum.. probably cost even more, since I didnt' even get into shoes etc) $9765.00
So.. by homeschooling our children, in addition to numerous other good benefits, we are ALSO saving...
Homeschool versus Public School = $2142.24 saved
Homeschool versus Private School = $9132.00 saved
Parents concerned about the cost of homeschooling their children should compare costs. According to thisarticle.. most parents will spend $527.08 on school supplies to send their children to school.
I spend less than that.. and so does every other homeschooling parent I know.
Here's a breakdown of our costs:
$435.00 Deluxe My Father's World package for second/third/fourth grade. (it covers history, science, literature, writing.. basically everything except penmanship, spelling and arithmetic).
$50.00 for "classroom" type supplies and teaching tools, anatomical charts, maps, paper for arts and crafts and a "real" painting kit (acrylics, with "real" brushes and paper.. it's not a kiddy craft thing).
$3.00 for plain pencils
$15.00 for a good electric pencil sharpener (our big "luxury" item!).
$50.00 (rounded up) for supplemental curriculum from Abeka, Rod and Staff, and a "home economics" primer.
Last year.. I spent about $30.00 on clearance or "back to school" things like crayons etc.. and STILL have two large totes full of arts and craft supplies.. so I'll count that $30.00 towards this year too.
My son's (1st and K4) are using hand-me-down curriculum from my DD, and all I needed to buy was new writing tablets, erasers and pencils (already covered above).
That's $583.00. I'll add an estimated $50.00 in extra printing costs (paper, toner) and that brings us to
$ 633.00 for educating my three oldest children for the year. Not bad.
Aside from curriculum, supplies and teaching tools... (as it's obvious we've saved money already).. here's the other ways homeschooling saves us money.
1. Lunches. We wouldn't qualify for "free lunch" programs, so I'd either pack a lunch, or send money... either way, it costs at least $1.50 per "bag lunch" or to buy... so that'd be $270.00 per full time student ($540.00 for both). At home.. we eat simpler, lots of leftovers, and my average cost to feed all of us (me and the four eaters) for lunch is $2.50. Figuring that my DD8 and DS6 eat nearly as much as I do.. that's a savings of $360.00 just for lunch.
2. School clothes. We are blessed to get lots of hand-me-downs, and I usually only buy two "nice" day outfits a season per child. Because the hand-me-downs wouldn't work really well for school(either too bummy, or too "churchy"), I'd have to buy lots more clothes. That'd be for three children.. since my two boys are wearing the same size (6). Figure a minimum of $15.00 per outfit X 2 children x 8 days worth plus $15.00 X 1 X 3 days (preK), and that's ANOTHER $360.00 that I don't spend thanks to homeschooling.
3. Fuel. Assuming we allowed our children to go on the bus (a false assumption btw).. I'd still have to take my 4yo to preschool and pick him up every day. If he went three days a week, I'd use a gallon of gas every day just to get him there. So.. that'd be around $324.00 in extra fuel costs. If they went to private school (much more likely).. it'd be a total of $1040.00 just in fuel costs.
4. Birthday parties/teachers gifts/etc. I'm just taking a wild guess.. but if they went to three parties each per school year (this would be extra.. since we don't "know" these kids already).. and we spent just $7.00 per gift, plus a gallon of fuel $3.00 per party.. per child.. that's $90.00 (a low figure, according to my SIL), and if we gave three teachers gifts per child at Christmas.. that be another $50.00 at least. so.. $140.00.. which is a low estimate.
So far, what do we have?
Lunch-----$360.00
School Clothes------ $360.00
Fuel---------$324.00 (a very unlikely minimum.. but assuming our children rode the bus)
Birthday/extra holiday $140.00
For a total of.........$1194.00
That $1194.00 is BEFORE the "average" outlay of $527.08 per student. So.. if we did that.. it'd cost us a total of $2775.24 just for the priviledge of letting the NEA get ahold of my children's minds. (oh... did I mention their latest resolution to teach INCEST in schools???? oh, yeah.. I'm SO interested in my kids learning that kind of stuff as alternative lifestyles... ick.)
IF... on the other hand(and much more likely if we didn't homeschool).. my children went to our "inexpensive" but very well ranked Christian school (they are in the 90th percentile nation wide of all students consistently)... it'd cost us much, much more.
Tuition would be $585 per month, or $5265.00 for the year (that would be for all three children.. but still!)
Plus $4500.00 for lunches, school unifoms, fuel, and holiday/birthdays. Total (minimum.. probably cost even more, since I didnt' even get into shoes etc) $9765.00
So.. by homeschooling our children, in addition to numerous other good benefits, we are ALSO saving...
Homeschool versus Public School = $2142.24 saved
Homeschool versus Private School = $9132.00 saved
posted by Queen of my House @ Saturday, August 19, 2006
1 Comments:
At 12:59 AM ,
Lucy Stern said...
I don't know how you find time to home school with a three week old baby that's nursing. I wish you lots of luck. Thanks for coming by.
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