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montessorisbev
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| Posted: July 27 2011 at 6:25pm | IP Logged
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Ladies,
I need some help...For those of you that homeschool,
1)Do you set a budget for the entire school year.
2)Does that budget include curriculum and supplies, online subscriptions etc or is it only curriculum
3) How do you get to that figure? Is it a %age of household income? Or the avg of school tuition for that geographic area.
I have 2 boys ages 6 and 9. They are currently in Catholic school, but recently have been requesting me to homeschool them. I have always, afterschooled, and summer schooled them to an extent, but have never completely homeschooled. I am trying to look into this, but am quickly getting overwhelmed with the various curricula, lesson plans etc out there. And most of them seem to cost money. To the extent that I am not sure it would be cheaper than school tuition :)
I am trying to get some ideas so I can organize my thought process.
Many Blessings
Bev
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happymama
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| Posted: July 27 2011 at 7:21pm | IP Logged
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I have a feeling the answers to these questions will vary greatly from household to household, especially during this recession. I don't budget, I buy what I need, which varies from year-to-year and is WAY less than what I would spend on Catholic school tuition here. Great books are a big part of my curriculum, so I try to get what I can from the library, but Amazon tempts me perpetually. :) Like the number of children to raise, I think this is a question best left to the husbands and wives to figure out on their own, lol.
We use Montessori philosophy with Classical Conversations and great books. Stop by my website if you want to look around, and good luck with your decisions!
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ekbell
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When I started homeschooling, we decided that a certain amount per month would be set aside for homeschool expenses. At the time we had little money so the amount was fairly small. It's increased as our income has increased.
I then checked our library, online resources, looked through my want list and sorted out what I felt we needed to buy (listed from most to least essential) from things that would be enriching and fun but couldn't be considered essential, from things for which online or library resources would do.
I bought the essentials as I could using the homeschool money and the fun extras have provided the extended family with gift ideas.
I've never looked at tuition costs for private schools in our area so our budget is simply based on our income. I'm fairly sure however that the per child we spend less since a lot of what we buy is non-consumable and used by multiple children over the years. It was one of my criteria back when we had very little money.
BTW I found two ideas useful when doing my initial research.
a)as long as the material used matches the parent and child, no curriculum leads to consistently better results then another
b)it really helps to figure out a few principles to narrow things down by [mine were -not a curriculum in a box (my oldest had a very uneven skill set) - as few consumable items as possible - a Catholic core for history - don't forget about secondhand resources (another advantage of non-consumables) - remember how many years we have to cover the various subjects and don't go overboard)
As for what is covered by the homeschooling budget - everything used for educational purposes that isn't covered by a different budget.
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aforb001
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| Posted: July 27 2011 at 9:19pm | IP Logged
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My first year, I used CHC for my ds starting K and put a curriculum together with new and used materials for my dd in 11th gr. I don't think both of them cost me more than $600 and that included enrollment in an umbrella school. At the time, my younger dd was finishing up 8th gr at the catholic school and her tuition for one month alone was about $300. This year I paid $400 after my book credits for full enrollment with Seton for my son. That includes EVERYTHING I need for the whole year. I have graduated both daughters now and my son is going into 5thgr. I don't think I have payed into their homeschool education total more than I paid for 1 year at the catholic school. I consider homeschooling a great bargain as well as the best CATHOLIC education I can give to my kids.
HTH,
Adele
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SallyT
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| Posted: July 28 2011 at 9:53am | IP Logged
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Varies from year to year, depending on our needs and what we're able to spend. At most, our total cost for books and supplies has been in the neighborhood of $700 for four children. Most of that has typically been spent on books, as in literature, (usually secondhand from used bookstores or library sales) to build our home library -- on the front end, amassing the books you want your kids to be reading (think of it as furniture for the imagination) can be an expensive proposition, but you do it by bits and pieces, leaning heavily on the public library and friends with books to lend while you fill your own shelves.
I've never bought a whole packaged curriculum, though we've used bits and pieces of CHC, with workbooks running roughly $15 apiece. Last year we bought about 5 CHC workbooks (spread out over our 3 younger children), plus Teaching Textbooks math for our oldest -- that was the only really big-ticket item at about $140. Otherwise, we depend heavily on literature. We've built up a pretty substantial home library at this point and supplement what we already have with the public library and our parish library, which the DRE has thoughtfully stocked with a lot of saints' stories, picture books, Bethlehem Books, etc. That's a real treasure!
This year our oldest is off to college, and we have 8th, 3rd, and 2nd grades still at home. My aim has been, as far as possible, to homeschool for free, though we are indulging in a couple of relatively big-ticket items for the 8th grader: Saxon Algebra (at roughly $70 for the whole kit, unless we find it cheaper secondhand), plus the One Year Adventure Novel for composition, which from the Homeschool Buyers' Co-op is on sale at about $149 (I think -- and the deadline to order is Sunday night!).
Other than those purchases, our resource lists look like this:
Grade 8:
History/Geography: literature from the Baldwin Project, plus free Kindle books, plus books we already own
Math: the aforementioned Saxon plus Khan Academy (he taught himself everything in the Algebra 1/2 book with the help of Mr. Khan, who is fantastic, and free), plus other free web resources, plus math literature we already own (Penrose the Mathematical Cat, etc)
English: the aforementioned One Year Adventure Novel, plus literature from Baldwin, our own shelves, and the public library. We'll also use some free online grammar resources as needed.
German: a free online course of study through the HomeschoolCollegeUSA site.
Art History: artists' biographies on Baldwin Project
Religion: books we own (YouCat, a breviary for the Daily Office/readings, C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, saints' biographies, etc from the parish library, altar serving, daily Mass, weekly Holy Hour)
PE: a local homeschool varsity soccer team; cost is $125 for the year, including everything but cleats and shinguards
Grades 2&3:
Literature-based history (ancient Greece & U.S.) and geography, using Baldwin Project plus books we owned already
Literature: Aesop's Fables, etc etc etc, using Baldwin Project and free Kindle books
Handwriting/Grammar/Composition: copywork using poetry books on Baldwin plus books we own; I'll probably buy a couple of those Mead Primary Journals with the blank space at the top for illustrations, because my kids love those. They cost about $3.50 each.
Introduction to Cursive Writing: worksheets from Head of the Class
Math: MEP, also free and excellent
Spanish: Head of the Class, plus a "Child's Introduction to Spanish" mp3 I downloaded from Children's Vinyl Records, plus (I hope, if they're not too shy) conversation in Spanish with some of their Spanish-speaking friends at church.
Science: nature study, which again will be largely literature-based, using books from Baldwin. The third-grader will also use the little multimedia science presentations for his grade level, on the systems of the human body. I'm thinking we'll make a lapbook based on those presentations. The second-grader will have presentations on birds and make a lapbook, too.
Religion: Baltimore catechism (FHC for the 2nd grader), plus Bible, plus saints' stories, plus participation in CCD (I'm the FHC catechist, actually, for the parish), plus participation in parish activities for the liturgical year, plus daily Mass and weekly Holy Hour. I think we'll probably do some Rosary, Advent, and Lent lapbooks from ThatResourceSite.com.
Music: online applications from Head of the Class; some Macbook apps I've downloaded; lots of listening to Pandora, etc, singing.
Art: Head of the Class art-instruction videos for projects (great for the non-crafty mom like me) plus some Macbook apps I found, including galleries of great paintings for picture study.
PE: We may participate in a weekly Homeschool Gym & Swim at our local YMCA this year. Can't remember right now what the monthly cost for this would be, but it's probably the most expensive thing we'll do, if we do it.
I haven't added up what all this will cost in total, but it's a pretty rich education at a super-bargain price. Way cheaper than school tuition, for sure. Our main costs this year will be in things like paper and printer ink, though I'm trying to minimize how much we print out.
I didn't build links into this post, but here's a recap of our free resources:
The Baldwin Project: free online public-domain children's books in every genre; I'm using anthologies, histories, books of poetry, science and nature writing, fables and fairy tales, and biographies.
Head of the Class: A totally free online curriculum for, currently, grades K-5. A bit worksheety and superficial for my taste, but they have some fun things of the sort that I never get around to doing.
That Resource Site Wonderful Catholic site with all kinds of printables, including lapbooks, folders, mini-books, etc.
Paper Dali Another great Catholic site with historical and saints paper dolls, which would also make nice timeline figures if you wanted timeline figures.
Khan Academy video math and science lectures -- brilliant!
Homeschool College USA: offers high-school courses using free resources. Someone mentioned this on the high-school forum the other day, and it looks terrific (and the individual links for the courses are worth browsing in and of themselves).
I know most people here are already familiar with these and many other sites, but if you're contemplating homeschooling and worrying about the price tag, the prospect of good free materials is kind of dazzling and eye-opening. At least it was for me! Even if you don't feel quite comfortable with the idea of putting together your own course of study using materials like this, you know they're out there for you, so that potentially you can homeschool on a very tight budget if need be.
On the other hand, you can homeschool on basically what you were spending for school tuition and come away with a far richer, deeper, more individually-tailored and spiritually-formative education than you were paying the school to deliver, so either way, homeschooling is a bargain.
Sorry that this is so long-winded -- it's easier for me to show than tell, which is why I've laid out an outline of all our plans. Other people's mileage may vary, but this is how we do things, and it's all been a huge blessing to our family.
Prayers for you as you discern the next step!
Sally
eta: the short answer is, I plan out what I think each child needs for the year, then my husband and I look at what we think we can spend. Generally it's just what we happen to have available towards the end of the summer -- we've never done a percentage of our income or compared with local schools. So my husband essentially floats me a figure, and I go back to my lists and start tweaking and whittling and substituting with free or lower-cost resources to beat the budget. If I find I absolutely need some resource for somebody mid-year, I can generally supply it, but I try to schedule the year and amass everything in one big push so that we're not caught out at any point.
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elynnmom
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| Posted: July 28 2011 at 7:08pm | IP Logged
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We are homeschooling this year after having the two eldest in Catholic school for the past three years. As I researched and planned the curriculum we wanted for all four children (6th grade, 3rd grade, and two preschoolers who need some extra help with pre-reading skills), I was coming to around $600 for curriculum and extra books. Interestingly, that same week, I received a check in the mail for exactly $600 from the school. It was a refund for the book fees for the coming school year that had been built in to our tuition payments. Of course, it is always nice to get an unexpected check in the mail! But, the reason I am writing this is because it affirmed for me that that amount of money is within reason for books and educational supplies for a school year. And we would have been paying that amount whether we sent our children to school or not.
Another thing that I have been realizing as we prepare for this first homeschool year is that I don't have to spend a fortune on school supplies that the school/teacher wants (usually for us, around $60 per child) and we don't have to buy uniforms, backpacks, lunch boxes, etc...and the PTO fees and teacher gifts and fundraisers, etc, etc...and gasoline that is wasted in the pick-up line...
Good Luck with your decision!
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cheesehead mom
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| Posted: July 29 2011 at 8:27am | IP Logged
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I have 7 children--5 school age and try to plan our literature (including historical fiction) around what I can get at the library and buy used when possible. This year will be our highest budget and counting school supplies and everything I think I will be around $1300, our highest year but I am finding that the budget for our high schooler is higher than I thought with a few online classes. Often money is put aside from the tax refund for this or we just start saving for it.
Laura
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SusanMc
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| Posted: July 29 2011 at 12:20pm | IP Logged
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Just wanted to add that if you can, other than doorbuster/loss leader sales, wait until after conventional school starts to get supplies. I got a year's worth of notebooks, paper, construction paper and art supplies at Target for about $12 at their 70% off sale in early September.
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Mom to two dear sons, '07 and '08.
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vmalott
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I think the most I ever shelled out was about $1000, and that was our first year when I just went nuts ordering from the Emmanuel catalog!  Since then I have learned to be a bit more thrifty.
While I don't have a preset budget that I have to stick to, I do create a spreadsheet each year that is called my wish list. I prioritize what we absolutely must have, then what I'd like to have, etc. I have several columns for finding the best prices, usually Rainbow Resource, used on Amazon, eBay, etc. and I list the lowest price for each.
Usually it comes out to be about $300, though some years it has been $500...the years I am aiming to get some piece of science equipment. That doesn't mean I actually *spend* that much. I usually re-evaluate and decide that those things I thought I wanted at the end of the previous year I not longer want or need.
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Valerie
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vmalott
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| Posted: July 30 2011 at 8:05am | IP Logged
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Oh, and my oldest son decided to go to public school full-time last year and we spent nearly $400 in school and athletic fees on just this one child! Can you imagine how many books and other learning materials we could've gotten for the other children for $400??? I can only imagine how much I could purchase if we went by the cost of tuition for our parish school! 
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Valerie
Mom to Julia ('94), John ('96), Lizzy ('98), Connor ('01), Drew ('02), Cate ('04), Aidan ('08) and three saints in heaven
Seven Times the Fun
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MNMommy
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I think a homeschooling budget is similar to a grocery budget. What you spend can range from next-to-nothing to a lot. There is always something else out there begging to be bought!
Our first couple years I spend more than I needed, but it was a part of the learning process. Now that my 3rd is almost K age, I am realizing how quickly some of the consumable extras add up in larger families. I am also realizing that paying for convenience can be a good thing.
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Jennifer
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jawgee
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MNMommy wrote:
| I think a homeschooling budget is similar to a grocery budget. What you spend can range from next-to-nothing to a lot. There is always something else out there begging to be bought! |
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I agree. If you buy a pre-packaged curriculum, it can really add up. I am making the switch to a more Charlotte Mason-style of homeschooling this year and, believe it or not, it has really helped my budget. The things I am buying for my fourth grader are things that I know I can use for years to come for my younger three children.
Last year I used a lot of CHC with my kindergartener. I do like their curriculum and I didn't find the price very prohibitive, but I am not left with a lot that I'll be able to use for the younger children.
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Monica
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cathhsmom
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I don't do a set budget at all - we just try to do it for as little as possible.
I use CHC with some add-ins and buy 90% of my items off amazon, using gift cards earned from swagbucks and irazoo which makes for little out of pocket costs for me. I estimate this year I spent perhaps $150 total, including supplies and a $70 last minute purchases at the local group's sale.
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JodieLyn
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budget is always too little and list always too big and I tweak and tweak and tweak, budget and list, until they managed to meet in the middle. 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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mommy4ever
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I have a fairly hefty budget. I live in a province that actually refunds for up to a certain amount per homeschool family. This year, I'm down to 2 kids. I have a budget of $1900 for the year(that is AFTER registration fees with the school board). I have access to 1/2 of that in Sept. and 1/2 in Jan. It can be used for curricula, classes, etc. My girls last year did 1 session of swimming, 1 session of wall climbing, semester of karate and numerous art classes-all linked to either history or artist study and field trips to the science center, school supplies, art supplies our workboxes.
Funding can be used for a computer(every 3 years per child).
I know we are absolutely spoiled for sure due to this. If we didn't have that budget, our activities would be far more limited to free access days at various facilities a couple times a year.
I compared what we paid last year for dd14 to her grade 7 year. This was her grade 7 Catholic school - $500 registration, field trips $75/mo, specialty activities $40/mo, bus passes $50/mo. Total approx: 2150$ we'd have paid out of pocket plus all the school lunches, school supplies. She homeschooled for grade 8, out of pocket: $150(she wasn't registered in art, but participated in monthly art classes for fun, no stress). The rest was covered with our school funding allotment. She is returning to school this year, she really missed all the interaction of the kids. She admits the 'school' part is way better at home, but she misses people. We did lots of activities, but she is a highly social kiddo. Down side of being home, she wasn't as active, so she gained some weight :( Even with the activities I had for her, she is far more active with friends at school walking about, goofing around in the yard there than at home.
I have gotten all of dd7 and all but $50 of dd12 curricula so far, and we have lots of wiggle room for activities again this year :) Thanks to CHC curricula, it's so affordable ;) Plus many of the books I had unused GC's that I got from amazon or chapters.
If we didn't have the funding, our budget would be approx 700 for the year.
As dd7 hits grade 5, our costs will start to go down, as dd12 started homeschooling in 5th, so I'll have some of the books, so less curricula.
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Homeschooling Budget
