How Much Does Homeschool High Cost YOU?

[Vanna]

I know homeschooling thru high school isn't just for the well-off, but I'm at a loss at how to do it "economically." I've looked into some online homeschool co-ops that offer classes on a donation basis, but I would still need to supplement some coursework with local classes and/or CD-Rom programs (and the cost does not look "cheap").

 

Please share how you homeschool your high school student with limited economic resources.

[Mommyfaithe]

I picked under 1500, but I did not include swim team costs, because he would be swimming even if he were in PS for High school.

 

I think our main expenditure has been Math & History/Lit...and I guess to some extent science. I am now homeschooling my 4th High Schooler, so I have lots of resources on hand, and I have also made my expensive mistakes already...so that said...

 

Most courses cost around $100 (give or take $50.)...multiplied by 5 per year. This can be reduced by finding materials used...which I often do, or by putting together my own plans or using books I have on hand. This year I had to but Math and Science. I found Teaching Textbooks Pre-Calc for 1/2 price on the for sale board. I am still looking for an Apologia Physics (anyone??) or I will have to buy it new soon. We also usually do 1 or 2 online courses at about $250 each (depending on the length.) This year we did not do ANY online classes. We just didn't have the funds or inclination to go that route this year.

Books etc. we use the library extensively for all kind of resources including e-books, videos, Teaching Company courses etc.

 

Many of our courses or classwork comes from Ambleside Online...which is FREE...The Library is FREE....

 

I think it cost us approxiamately $300. for my high schooler this year.

 

Faithe

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I chose the second option but could do it for the 3rd option if required. What can I say, I hang out here and love curriculum;):lol:

[Lori D.]

Between curriculum (I buy used as much as possible), extracurricular activities (public school tennis team, Youth & Gov't fee, field trips), and membership/activities with the homeschool group, it comes out to about $900 per student. (We have 2 DSs, gr. 11 and 12 this year.)

 

This year, it will be more a little more for the older student -- while I didn't have too much in the way of curriculum and supplies for him this year, he is taking 1 class (both semesters) at the community college, and that will run almost $700.

 

However, compared with the nearby Christian private school ($8200 per year per high school student), or the college prep private school across town ($14,200 per year per student), getting by at $1000 per year per student sounds like a deal! ;) And it certainly beats sending the kids to public school in a state that ranks at the bottom of educational quality in the country!

 

Being able to re-use material for younger DS helps a lot, as does being able to re-sell some curriculum which helps re-invest for the next year. We also have several great used book stores and Good Will stores with books, so I can find a lot of the classic literature, and even some textbooks really cheap.

 

However, this year has been also more of a squeeze, as DH has been hit with a big pay cut (forced furlough days), and I do not have a paying job on top of my full time jobs of homeschooling, wife, mother, and volunteer for 2 different programs.

 

On the positive side -- homeschooling actually has cost us LESS in high school than elementary, because now I don't buy 5 different programs for every school subject nor over-buy on the cool kits and hands-on items that we had too many to get to... :blushing: (embarrassed!!) -- Lori D.

[Bee]

Most courses are about $100. I could use textbooks/living books for that price. I just choose to spend more to make learning more palatable/challenging for dd. And dd does dance which adds considerably more but I'd like to think she'd still do it even if she wasn't hsing.

[4wildberrys]

I voted the 3rd option from the bottom----but that is MAXXED out! And buying everything brand new. Adding any DVD course and any science kits in high school is what drives the cost for us to the maximum. If I was happy with SL, ds's high school would cost probably less than $200 a year from here on out since we have all the Cores from dd's schooling. But I have switched him to MFW for high school, which is still really reasonable.

 

I feel no guilt whatsoever, though, even if I was spending upwards of $2000 per student and putting it all on a credit card to pay off over time because I want to give my kids as close to the education I got from my college prep high school---which runs about $35,000+ per year. They put out a brochure explaining how 'A _______ Education IS Affordable!' :O Pardon me...did I hear that right??

Edited November 24, 2010 by 4wildberrys

[gingersmom]

I picked $3000 and up.

 

If my daughter is home next year I plan on using Oak Meadow (with teacher support) which will run around $4000. :001_huh:

 

Plus I will be adding in several other subjects for another $500.

 

My daughters main extracurricular activity is ice skating and her skating team. That runs me tens of thousands of dollars. :confused:

 

For me homeschooling would still be cheaper than private school which starts at around $25,000+ in my neck of the woods.

[regentrude]

I think you should make it clear in your question whether you are talking about the cost of the academic education - or whether you include extracurriculars which can be extremely expensive if a family so chooses.

 

The cost of these extracurriculars would often be the same if the student attended public school, and I do not think it makes for a good comparison to include these in the figure.

[Rhonda in TX]

I recently made a list of high school curriculum and it came to just under $1000 each year. I will be able to reuse some things for the next child, so she won't be as expensive. It's pretty pricey, but still so, so much cheaper than it would have been if they were still in private school.

[JenneinCA]

My daughter is an seventh grader but she her classes are already costing significant money.

 

Latin is $200 per semester. Literature is another $200 per semester. Writing is $210 every three months. I am still teaching the other subjects but I can't teach them all for the duration.

 

I selected the most expensive option because we will be there soon enough.

[rlugbill]

My ds is in 7th grade. The books we use don't cost much. $50 or so per year per subject. Rosetta Stone is pricey, but we can use that over many years, so it's not that much more per year.

 

But, my dd does lots of music lessons and gymnastics, which come to around $500 per month. So, we are around $6,000 per year!

 

She would do some of the lessons if she were in school, but not nearly as many. She does violin, piano, flute, orchestra, two ensembles, and 2 gymnastics classes.

 

If she were in school, she wouldn't have time to do all of this and her homework and have a life. Plus, if she were in school, she could do some of these things at school, so wouldn't need to do it outside school. Also, if she were in school, she wouldn't feel the need to get into all these programs so she can be around other kids.

 

She is a very talented musician- 2nd chair violin in youth orchestra. But, I can see how this gets even more expensive as they get older- more expensive instruments, summer music camp (which we already do), orchestra trips to Europe, etc.

 

We really can't afford it. My folks are helping to pay for her lessons. I think it's all too much though, but can't stop at this point- her friends are there- she's talented, etc.

[Lori D.]

If I take out the extracurriculars and just count the cost of books, supplies, kits, etc, then we're talking about $400-500 per student per year for our family. Like someone else said, it comes out to about $50-$150 per class, depending on what program you buy and whether or not you can find it used, pass it down to a younger student, or even borrow it.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

My son does some long distance learning from France. That costs is about 1300$. It covers French, Spanish and Latin.

We're so happy with Art of Problem Solving, that we'll keep with it till graduation. Those costs are around 300$ per class, three classes a year, so here's another 1000$.

Next year will be officially 9th grade. We'll be going with Kolbe. Registration is slightly under 300$, plus the books for English, History, Theology and Science. On top of that, he does science lab at a rent-a-lab place. Another 1000$ there for all of Kolbe.

 

So approximate cost is 3,300$ for French, Latin, Spanish, English, Literature, Theology, Science and Math.

 

My son will be doing some extra activities, one of them costing us 2,000$ per year, and possibly more. :001_huh:

[Nan in Mass]

It depends what you count. With school supplies like paper and a library card, I could educate my children for high school. Add in some art supplies and a budget for used books from alibris and I could do a better job. Add a laptop, a printer, and internet and I could do an even better job. Add in some community college courses and the transportation and it gets better. Add plane tickets and other travel and it improves even more. And add in gymnastics and it gets even better. I could, however, do it with just the school supplies and the library card. It would be much harder for me to do this before high school, however. Before high school, there were specific programs I needed to buy, like Singapore Math, and Writing Strands and piano lessons. I make many of our courses and we have quite a few reference books at home that I've picked up over the years. I like having a larger budget, though. Community college classes and laptops for everyone make things very nice indeed.

-Nan

Edited November 24, 2010 by Nan in Mass

[AnitaMcC]

It costs us about $300 to homeschool our twins for high school each year.

 

I only buy used text books and use the library as much as I can. Most of the books they share. School supplies (paper, pens, etc) aren't included in my costs since we would be buying this stuff if they were attending ps anyway (actually spend less since I don't buy all the "extras" that schools put on supply lists).

 

We don't do any outside classes (other than the one CC class Ds took last year and Dd's music lessons). Dd would get music lessons no matter what. But last year Ds CC computer class cost about $400. He isn't taking any CC classes this year.

 

Next year it will be more as Ds will be taking CC classes and Dd probably will also.

[justamouse]

In all honesty, I think you can spend as much as you want, and as little as you need. It all depends on the kid. Are they setting their sights on Julliard? Your parameters are going to be totally different because you're going to have all kind of private musical instruction plugged in. If they are gifted in _____ and you are facilitating lessons in that area... you see?

 

Since starting Ambleside Online I'm figuring lower than 1k, and that for maths, sciences and labs. I can download most of the texts for free from Gutenberg with a Kindle, and I'm adding in outside art classes.

[cathmom]

I have a 9th grader, and I just went through what I spent on what she's using right now, that I specifically bought for her, and it's under $150. I do have some things that her older brother used (mainly her science book), and some things that we already had for other reasons. I am not including the cost of her ballet classes here, since she would do them even if she went to school. However, it would still be under $1500.

 

I don't expect every year to be this cheap, though. :)

[Willow]

I haven't voted as I don't have the same currency...BUT, I know I could do High School with the Internet and the library (great library within walking distance)

 

Yes, classes are great, and so is super dooper DVD curriculum, but this is a classical education we are talking about I assume? And so many classical resources are free on the net nowadays, that even if one printed the books off to read online it would still only be a couple of hundred dollars a year, and then there is librivox, so one can listen to classical literature as well.

 

In fact I believe one could get a great education with a King James Bible and a good encyclopedia and another interested body to discus things with (a sibling or parent would do fine here) On the other hand that still leaves maths....

[FaithManor]

I would say we spent around $750.00-1000.00 per year for dd. I planned well in advance and really watched amazon and ebay for used books which helped.

 

It will probably be about the same maybe slightly more for ds. We will be using some of the materials from MIT opencourseware which is actually free but they do ask for donations in order to keep the program running. It costs MIT a huge amount of money to make their lectures, labs, assignments, DVD's, etc. available. So dh wants to make a $500.00 donation each year of ds's high school since we will be tapping this program for the other two boys as well. Additionally, these courses require college texts some of which, ARE NOT CHEAP. But, we are already seeing some of the books appear on the used market so we have hope of not having total sticker shock.

 

I'd guess that if we got stuck having to buy a couple of the texts new, we could end up spending $1500.00.

 

Faith

[ereks mom]

I know homeschooling thru high school isn't just for the well-off, but I'm at a loss at how to do it "economically." I've looked into some online homeschool co-ops that offer classes on a donation basis, but I would still need to supplement some coursework with local classes and/or CD-Rom programs (and the cost does not look "cheap").

 

Please share how you homeschool your high school student with limited economic resources.

 

I don't think I've ever spent more than $500 per year on curriculum/books even when I was teaching two kids at the same time. I've graduated one and I now have a 10th grader. I meticulously research curricula before I start shopping, so I rarely wind up with materials that just sit on the shelf. (It does happen occasionally, but not often, and when it does happen, I sell the materials on the boards ASAP so I can recoup my losses.) I shop carefully for used materials, combing the boards for what I want at a price I'm willing to pay. I also use the library extensively.

Edited November 24, 2010 by ereks mom

[AngieW in Texas]

It hasn't been as expensive as I feared it would be.

 

My 17yo is taking 4 of her 5 classes at the cc each semester this year. Dual credit pays for two of the classes each semester. My cost for her tuition/fees has been $350/semester. Her books last semester cost about $250 used. She'll probably have a similar cost for next semester. I also paid $80 each for Thinkwell government and economics for her to do at home. So my cost for her 12th grade year has been $1360.

 

Last year my oldest just had two classes at the cc each semester plus one over the summer. These classes were all free through dual credit. We just had to pay for the books and supplies. Altogether I paid $650 for all her cc books and supplies that year. I also paid another $350 for the materials she used at home. So that was $1000 for 11th grade.

 

I don't remember the costs for her back to 10th grade.

 

My middle dd is in 10th grade this year. She hasn't had any outside classes yet, but she will be doing a teen ethics class next semester (not for credit, just a 10-week course) that will be $125. Her school supplies for this year cost $450-500, all bought used except for the OM teacher manuals and the physics Labpaq.

 

Her 9th grade cost was about the same, if I remember right.

 

Unfortunately, I strongly disliked just about everything I used with my oldest for high school and sold those programs so I could buy something different. The only programs I used with my oldest that I repeated for my middle were IEW Windows to the World (actually had them do that together), Jacobs Algebra and Geometry (although I switched my middle to 3rd edition), Kinetic Books Algebra II, and Giancoli's Physics (which I switched my oldest to after we abandoned Hewitt's Conceptual Physics).

 

So I'd say $300-500 for 9th and 10th grades, but $1000-1500 for 11th and 12th grades. We typically don't do any outside classes until after 10th grade, because that's when we can start dual credit at the cc. While the costs do go up at that point, the ability to get college credit at a much lower than 4-yr college price makes it worthwhile. It also allows my kids to take classes that I can't teach myself.

Edited November 24, 2010 by AngieW in Texas

[DarlaS]

I had to pick other as I now have two high school aged kids which I spend vastly different amounts on and can only pick one option.

 

Kid 1: Community college full time enrollment this year & next will run just over 4k with books.

 

Kid 2: Probably under $500 this year. I expect something similar next year as well until he is ready to enroll at the (really awesome) CC his older bro is attending.

 

If we didn't have this option, I'd look into good online course, and probably end up spending more. It has always amazed me that high school courses online cost more than the CC.

[flyingiguana]

WAY less than 1500. Probably less than 100, but I haven't been keeping track.

 

Even the extracurriculars aren't anywhere near that.

[Julie in MN]

I just made a list on another board... must be that time of year when we look back at the $$$. I voted for under 1500 but that's averaging. This year is more expensive than next year will be...

 

 

History, Bible, and Literature (MFW) $419. Next year is $379.

 

Geometry $142. Next year math will be covered because I have the program my older dd used.

 

Science - hard to quantify as we had some materials already and sold some others that didn't work, but not much cost. I have things for next year but might possibly do labs with his math team coach, which would be another $30 per month.

 

Computer science elective - bought used for about $50 and will probably work on it all year. Next year's electives I mostly have from my older dd (health, logic); MFW lesson plans $15 next year.

 

French $404 - this is for 2 years, but it almost killed me; however, my son is happy & working hard at it. So next year is covered.

 

Math team - $30 per month plus $15 for an ACT prep book

 

Book club - $170 this year, plus $8.50 for one book I didn't have (this is the first year we've paid a teacher, but the boys are getting older... they have offered to let my son attend for free but I haven't had to ask for that yet)

 

YMCA class - about $75 per semester

 

(I didn't count extra books because I sell things to pay for those, and try to come out even.)

Edited November 27, 2010 by Julie in MN

[for-the-win]

My family only spend 500-600 dollars at most :)

[mims]

The first one is costing me close to $1500 but the other 2 will reuse a lot of the curriculum. I'm thinking we will average $1000 a year for each. This is with about 2 outside classes a year.

[Hunter's Moon]

It cost about $400 for my Junior Year.

 

Senior Year looks like it'll be about the same.

[southcarolinamom]

It's been about $1000-$1300 per year (total, for 2 high schoolers), but a lot of their curriculum I got used, and have been able to re-sell for practically what I paid for it (ie Apologia science, Sonlight, TT math, etc).

 

I try to buy any new material we need from http://www.childsbooks.com.

 

When they both took piano lessons, I spent another $1800 a year (ack!), not to mention soccer team fees, community theatre fees, etc.

[Vanna]

I think you should make it clear in your question whether you are talking about the cost of the academic education - or whether you include extracurriculars which can be extremely expensive if a family so chooses.

 

The cost of these extracurriculars would often be the same if the student attended public school, and I do not think it makes for a good comparison to include these in the figure.

Thank you for the suggestion.:) I guess I could say "extracurriculars included" but some folks don't include that in in their figure because they feel they would be paying for them even if their children attended school elsewhere. I try to count everything: supplies, books, class fees, field trips, extracurriculars, etc., when figuring what I spend annually. Up to the present, we've spent about $500 per child/per yr to homeschool (counting all that I've mentioned).

 

My ds is in 7th grade. The books we use don't cost much. $50 or so per year per subject. Rosetta Stone is pricey, but we can use that over many years, so it's not that much more per year.

 

But, my dd does lots of music lessons and gymnastics, which come to around $500 per month. So, we are around $6,000 per year!

 

She would do some of the lessons if she were in school, but not nearly as many. She does violin, piano, flute, orchestra, two ensembles, and 2 gymnastics classes.

 

If she were in school, she wouldn't have time to do all of this and her homework and have a life. Plus, if she were in school, she could do some of these things at school, so wouldn't need to do it outside school. Also, if she were in school, she wouldn't feel the need to get into all these programs so she can be around other kids.

 

She is a very talented musician- 2nd chair violin in youth orchestra. But, I can see how this gets even more expensive as they get older- more expensive instruments, summer music camp (which we already do), orchestra trips to Europe, etc.

 

We really can't afford it. My folks are helping to pay for her lessons. I think it's all too much though, but can't stop at this point- her friends are there- she's talented, etc.

That's wonderful that your folks are helping. We had the in-laws help out for a time and we were grateful, but now we are on our own so we've scaled back quite a bit on the extracurriculars.

 

Thank you so much, EVERYONE, for sharing what you are doing and offering advice. I have read through your posts carefully and saved them (the subscription emails, that is). :D

[LuvingLife]

I chose other, this year my curriculum cost about $300, and that's not including extra expenses.

 

Hopefully for the rest of my years it won't be so expensive!