Homeschooling While I believe homeschooling isn’t for every family, I also believe many of the objections people have to homeschooling can be easily addressed and answered.
Below are some questions we recently received from parents who are considering homeschooling…
“If I start homeschooling, won’t my wife have to quit our job? We’ll lose our second income.”
“My taxes already pay for my kid to be in school. I can’t afford to pay more money so I can school them at home.”
“I’ve seen some homeschooling curricula, and it can get expensive.”
To the family that is concerned homeschooling is too costly, what can we say?
The fact that there are many single-parent homes today that homeschool should alert us to the fact that it is more than possible to earn an income and homeschool your children. (In fact, if you’re a single mom who wants to work from home and homeschool, we highly recommend our friend Kim’s book Single Mom Homeschooling.)
Those who choose to make homeschooling a priority are doing so because they believe their kids are getting something invaluable—something money can’t buy.
Fact #1: Homeschooling doesn’t have to be time-intensive.
Depending on a child’s age and model of education you’re using, a child might only need 1-4 hours of hands-on instruction per day. The rest of the time, children can often do projects or reading on their own. As children get older, they can become even more independent.
This leaves most parents—even single-parents—plenty of time to hold down a part-time or full-time job at the same time.
The key to this is keeping homeschool simple. Don’t get overly ambitious: set clear educational goals for your kids and stick to them. Find a routine that works. Learn from myriads of others who have successfully homeschooled their own children.
Fact #2: Homeschooling can actually save you time—giving you time to make money.
Homeschooling is incredibly flexible. When your children are enrolled in a public or private school, your schedule is dictated, in large part, by the school: pick-up and drop-off times, event nights, homework after school. But homeschooling allows you to set your own schedule more easily.
Don’t worry if your child’s school day doesn’t look like anyone else’s. If you decide you want your child to learn budgeting while you shop together for groceries, do it. If you decide the best time for a field trip to the museum is in the evening, do it.
Fact #3: There are many ways to make money from home.
Make no mistake: it is difficult to make a job or career change for the sake of homeschooling your kids. But there are many who do it—and do it successfully.
Consider making money from home. With a computer, a phone, and a reliable Internet connection, there are many possibilities.
- Freelancing writing (you can find jobs at ProBlogger, FWJ, BloggingPro, and many other places)
- Freelance translation (go to TranslatorsCafé and ProZ to find jobs)
- Transcription (medical transcription may require a little training, but there are non-medical transcriptionists as well)
- Make your home office a virtual call center (companies like LiveOps or ACD Direct)
- Graphic or web design work (if you have the experience and skill)
- Virtual assistant work (being a VA includes helping out bloggers, Internet marketers, and online businesses)
- Selling stuff on Etsy
- Sell Tupperware or become a Lilla Rose consultant
- Event planning (weddings, parties, community events, etc.)
- At-home telemarketing
- Massage therapy
- Prepare taxes at home
- Childcare out of the home (you will probably need to get licensed for this)
- Selling photos online
- Online tutoring (such as InstaEDU or Tutor.com)
- OR…if you’re interested in sharing about essential oils with people, my wife would love to chat with you about being on her team. She’s always looking for motivated individuals to partner with and mentor. Email her: trisha@intoxicatedonlife.com.
Fact #4: There are many ways to cut costs.
By scaling down our lifestyle, there are many ways to save money. Often the cost of our lifestyle “creeps up” without us realizing it.
- Learn how to budget.
- Split costs with family. Do you have a parent, sibling, or cousin who is looking to save money as well. Consider asking them to move in with you.
- Share cell phone plans with extended family members. Ditch the landline if you can.
- Consider moving to a less expensive home.
- Consider gardening for growing your own food.
- Choose to limit how often you eat out. Pack lunches for work.
- Limit vacations. When you do travel, use deal websites to book hotels.
- Get rid of cable. Use cheaper online services for TV and movies.
- Buy in bulk.
- Get used clothes from thrift stores, consignment shops, garage sales, ThredUp, Like Twice, and clothing swaps.
- Sell stuff you don’t need anymore.
- Use coupons. Look for yard sales and bargains. Join websites and Facebook groups that promote daily deals. Use MyPoints, Swagbucks, Ebates, RetailMeNot, and Groupon.
Fact #5: You can save big on homeschool curricula.
There are many ways to save money on the curricula you want to buy. You can use the public library for a lot of things (books, DVD, CDs, audiobooks, etc.). You can subscribe to homeschool deal websites.
One of my favorite ways to save money is to wait for great “bundle” sales. Homeschool curricula providers sometime pool their digital resources with other providers, offering bundles of resources for dirt-cheap. (The provider benefits because they can get their material into people’s hands who have never heard of them. You benefit because you can get a TON of e-books for next to nothing.)
Leave a comment
Let us know…
- How do you save money homeschooling?
- What are other objections you’ve heard or you’ve had to homeschooling?
In the school district where I used to work, parents had to pay a yearly book fee (I think it was $75/child?). Also if they were involved in any extracurricular activities, there was a $50 activity fee. Those might have been waived if your income was low enough, but most families had to pay it. Also, there were many fundraisers, requests for parents to contribute for snacks, field trip costs, etc. It’s a “free public education” if you qualify…otherwise there are a lot of extra costs.
By buying used curriculum, re-using for younger siblings, and keeping things simple, I usually can keep our curriculum costs below $75/child. I don’t count school supplies, field trips or music lessons in that amount because those are things we would have to pay for separately anyway, if the kids went to public school.
It is true: public school has its costs just as homeschooling does.
I homeschooled from just books in past years. Luckily we had friends who had current books that they passed down to us. My kids are one year apart in age so I was able to use the books twice!
This past year we tried ARVA which is a free homeschool program with the public school curriculum. I really enjoyed it! Everything you need is sent to you. There are live online classes with an actual teacher for some of the classes. My kids really excelled without all the drama in public schools. They were able to focus much better and work around a flexible schedule.
There is so much time waisted during a public school day by switching classes 6-8 times, standing in lines (in the hallway, lunch lines), doing countless worksheets (even though you understand the material), etc. Homeschooled learn life lessons daily. They have time to work on extracurricular activities or just other interests. My son was able to practice and play football games with the public school he would have gone to in our area.
It works for some and not for others. My kids are amazing and smart. People were always distracting.
Most people I talk to would homeschool in a second if they could.
I’m meeting more and more people who say the same things. Thanks for sharing, Crystal!
It’s true…you CAN afford to homeschool if you are willing to get creative 🙂
Absolutely!
This gives me so much more confidence to pursue homeschooling 🙂 I love the flexibility – it will allow us to travel while studying and can really be done alongside so many other things! Thanks for the inspiration!
You’re welcome, Vanessa!
The first few weeks of my daughter’s year of first grade, we were overseas. We homeschool through a remote public charter school (which, incidentally, covers all our costs for curriculum and even classes–it’s awesome!), and the school was more than supportive of the “life school” of travel.
I have a friend who had to pull her kids out of their public school to travel to Argentina for two months (which is, incidentally, where their family is from and where they were born), and she had to really fight and endure much stress and strife because of it. Sigh.
We use most of our charter school dollars for “consumables” (classes, science kits, craft supplies) and the public library for the rest. We also have friends who gladly pass down both clothing and homeschool items their kids are done with. So our curriculum is esssentially free…and it keeps our house from being overwhelmed by mountains of school stuff : )
(I’m also grateful that I have two freelance jobs–copyediting and O&M work–that fit so nicely with a homeschool schedule. Thanking God for that, since I didn’t anticipate I’d ever homeschool!)
Can you tell me what bundle deals are available throughout the year?
There are a lot of bundles that go on sale for short periods throughout the year. Ultimate Bundles, for instance, puts out bundles on healthy living, homemaking, DIY, photography, herbs and essential oils, etc. Build Your Bundle has many different smaller bundles, mostly centered around homeschooling.
Great read, very informative.. I am a single mom with triplet boys who are 3yrs old now.. They will be turning 4 this fall 2017, so I have to wait almost a full year to enroll into school system.. I am so interested in homeschooling , I have never been homeschooled nor do I know anyone but I have this sense that my boys will be much served, appreciate attention given for school.. One of my most concern is COST.. I am still investing/ researching etc.. will so appreciate any help.. thank you
There are many ways to homeschool cheaply. Let me know if I can help you in any way.
You can find free resources on line for everything. There is even a completely free on line curriculum called Easy Peasy.
I took my oldest out of high school when the bulling begin with cheerleading. Thereafter, I too believed I couldn’t afford to homeschool but boy was I wrong. I just went through a divorce and it was pretty hard on the entire family. Homeschooling not only helped heal the family, but it allowed my daughter to excel in her studies. When she went back to school (senior year) She didn’t struggle.
I feel like the money that I used to drive them to school weekly for gas ($45) in a minivan, I relocated to school books for them. It takes me a little longer to buy every single subject, but what I do is purchase their favorite subject first, and then I purchase the rest of each child’s grade one by one so by the time they’re finished that one particular subject – they can begin on the next subject. {{I use Accelerated Christian Education & I love it}}. I am addicted to this website & I can’t begin to say a huge THANK YOU for all the resources you have afford my family!
I haven’t worked a 9-5 in about 7 years. I currently am working on my photography business that allows me to minister to the youth!
Miss Araebia ~
Thanks for sharing your story! So good to hear how homeschooling blessed your family.
Homeschooling frugally was easy when my kids were young. It’s difficult to keep it cheap with five teens. I work part time, and don’t have time to teach everything -Algebra 2, Chemistry, Biology, research papers, second language. Yet, I can’t afford to pay anyone else to teach these things either. We used to nanny, but now live in a remodel and can no longer do that. Then, there’s social life. All the teens are busy with expensive sports and theater we can’t afford, which means none of the teens have time for my teens. Loneliness kicks in. The kids start having an attitude against homeschooling. It’s hard.