Is Homeschooling Expensive?
January 13, 2013
Homeschoolers today have the benefit of an abundance of curricula to choose from. There are programs out there for every style of homeschooling, for every type of learner, and for every budget. It’s extremely easy to become overwhelmed and it’s even easier to overspend.
I often hear the question, “How much should I budget?” and along with it, the lament that homeschooling is too expensive. With the great variety of materials available, it’s very easy to spend a lot of money.
When I first began to homeschool my children, I spent quite a bit of money, as I’m sure most of us do. I bought full packages of curricula, thinking I needed a full boxed program to hold my hand. I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to work, either for my child or my wallet. As a one income family, I had to be careful with our money. When you start adding it all up – math programs, spelling, grammar, history, zoo memberships, arts and crafts materials, outside classes, it can quickly get very pricey. But it doesn’t have to be so expensive! After about two years of spending a ton of money on a variety of materials, I decided that I could only send about $500 per year for all of my children. I shopped very carefully, and focused on materials that could be reused with my younger children.
When I decided to start writing Build Your Library curriculum, pricing was forefront in my mind. I looked at all the similar programs on the market which were all in the $300 – $500 range, and more! $799 for a box? That wasn’t even including language arts, science and math! I knew that my program had to be much more economical. I sat down and looked over everything, and worked out a price that I myself would be willing to pay.
For example. If you were to purchase Grade 1Â and all of the scheduled books, it costs around $311. However, many of the books can be found at the library, so it isn’t necessary to buy every single book. You could only purchase the books used longer than your library will allow you to keep them, keeping costs right around $100! This includes history, literature, science, art and some language arts, so all you would need to purchase is math and possibly spelling or phonics. And the best part? It’s all non-consumable, so if you have a younger child, they can use it without costing you any extra money! You will just need to reprint the activity pages.
Homeschooling is absolutely an investment in your time and also your money. That’s why it’s so important to choose carefully what you do with that time and money. You could spend hours and hours scouring bookstores and websites finding just the right books and materials and then scheduling them yourself. But that is a huge investment of time, which we all know, is hard to come by as a homeschooling mom! Let me do the work for you, saving you both time and money! Try Build Your Library curriculum, educate your child and build up a great home library that can be enjoyed for years to come!
Build Your Library curriculum: Homeschooling, uncomplicated. And economical. 🙂
I hope you will try out a program and join the Build Your Library family, – building young minds, one book at a time!
Current Full Grade Level Products Available for Purchase:
Kindergarten – Grade 1 – Grade 2 – Grade 3 – Grade 4 – Grade 5 – Grade 6 – Grade 7 – Grade 8 – Grade 9 – Grade 10 (coming soon)
Current Unit Studies.
Related Article(s): What’s in the Box?!?
Emily Cook is the author and creator of the secular homeschool curriculum Build Your Library, a literature-based K-12 program infused with the teachings of Charlotte Mason. She writes full year lesson plans as well as shorter topical unit studies. Emily has been homeschooling her four children in Southern NH for 21 years. She is passionate about reading aloud to children of all ages and loves to share her love of literature with others. She and her family also makes incredibly dorky videos about homeschooling, books and more on Youtube at ARRRGH! Schooling. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
