The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [44]
Public school distance learning programs are rapidly becoming more available. Eugene, Oregon–based CyberSchool offers high school credit courses worldwide over the Internet in a variety of subject areas. Typical English courses, for example, include Advanced Placement English, creative writing, and “All the World’s a Stage” (Shakespeare I) at $300 per class per semester.
Costs for unschooling families are almost impossible to predict, but most families estimate they spend somewhere between $300 and $1,000 for the entire family. Many families buy lots of books, crafts, games, toys, and other items without keeping official track of whether what they’re buying is “educational” and can count items such as computers as general family purchases rather than as specifically educational. (Some of us deliberately avoid trying to calculate educational expenses, fearing to see the grand total.) Especially with younger children, though, it’s difficult to say that such expenditures differ much from those for conventionally schooled children. Because so much of what unschoolers do falls into the category of everyday activities, for which most of us already have the materials we need, unschooling can be done on a shoestring, if necessary.
Fiscal restraint is, however, a good characteristic for most homeschoolers to develop. Especially when you’re first starting out, it can be tempting to buy every nifty and interesting item you come across, just because you think one of your kids might really enjoy it. Too much of that sort of impulse buying can wreak havoc on your household budget, and such items often end up unused in the backs of closets or in the boxes for the next garage sale.
The Single-Income Family
The vast majority of homeschooling families find that their educational choice has one major and almost unavoidable financial consequence: the necessity of living on one income. For many parents considering homeschooling, the idea seems impossible: How can a family survive on one income and still lead any reasonable kind of life? Many parents never seriously consider the homeschooling option because they assume the financial problems it presents are insoluble.
It’s mainly a matter of setting your priorities and deciding what you truly need instead of just assuming everything you need. Just as new moms consider the finances of returning to work after the birth of a child, you’ll need to figure out your expenses. Your costs will be less in several obvious areas with a parent at home full-time:
Day care expenses will be eliminated.
Transportation expenses will probably be reduced substantially. Eliminating a regular commute means you’ll no longer need the monthly bus pass, or you’ll be reducing wear and tear on the car and paying less for gas and insurance. You may find that you can get rid of one car entirely.
Work clothes become unnecessary. Even in many retail jobs, work clothes can be a significant expense (and most of us adapt quite easily to T-shirts and jeans instead of suits and ties).
Food costs are reduced. Not only will the at-home parent be eating fewer lunches out, but the entire family may eat at home more just because they spend more time at home. Cooking at home is substantially less expensive than eating out.
You may find that having one parent at home will be less of a financial hardship than you expect, and the advantages it offers in being available and able to do more with your family will make it well worth the difference. And there are plenty of ways to keep your expenses down without feeling like you’re missing out. Most homeschooling families find that they end up doing more things together as a family and spending less time at such traditional American pastimes as mall crawling. Relatively low-cost activities such as reading books, making music, going on picnics, getting together with friends, and gardening become interesting and satisfying pursuits. Homeschooling parents sometimes also find that their children’s (and even their own) wants become less peer driven and follow their own