B Is for Homeschool Budget ~ Blogging through the Alphabet

I have gotten lots of questions over the last 20 years of homeschooling about how much it costs to homeschool. That is a question that has a different answer for every homeschooling family. There are many factors involved. We started homeschooling only one child and at our height were homeschooling four children, including a high school student. Now, we are homeschooling two high school students (one with special needs). Our yearly budget for homeschooling has been as high as $3,000 and as low as $500 depending on what the needs were in a given year and what our finances allowed. Generally, we have budgeted $500 per child, per year with a little bit more allowed for the teen years. We do not include sports fees and extracurricular activities (such as dance), educational vacations and weekend travel expenses, because we would provide these things even if our kids attended school.

This year our budget was $ 1,400 for two high school students. Here is how we did.

• Co-Op Classes ~ Sign Language II for the entire school year and one semester of Photography plus Art Exploration classes ~ $492
• Field Trips not including food purchased ~ $100
• Subscription Boxes ~ We are trying three months of Eureka Crates from Kiwi Crates and have been doing Universal Yums boxes this entire school year ~ $202. These supplement Dean's Industrial Arts, Math and World Geography credits. 
• Math Curriculum ~ I bought three this year! Math had some bumpy mistakes and missteps this year, but we are on even footing now ~ $309.
• Other Curriculum ~ I was able to pull from my own shelves for the most part this year. I did order several World Geography books from Memoria Press and bought Geography through Art from a used book store. I also bought Learning Language Arts through Literature (The Gold Book), Story Starters by Karen Andreola, and The Story of Science: Newton at the Center ~ $108.
• Science Kits ~ $68.
• Other Books ~ I buy books throughout the year from used book stores, Amazon and library sales to supplement our studies and reading programs ~ $53.

Total ~ $1,332.00

We are currently on target and I am dripping in curriculum and books that will more than sustain us through the rest of the year. Dear daughter does want me to purchase a Latin program for her. She wants it desperately. We found one from Memoria Press that she likes and I plan to buy it for her as a reward when she completes two more credits...giggle, giggle. That will top us off at just over $1,400 for the year.

 

Blessings, Dawn