DawnM Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I used to get by with about $300-$500 per year for all 3 kids, not including extra-curriculars, just materials for HSing. We bought used, went to the library a lot, etc.... Not any more! I think this year we are edging towards $1,000 and next year may even be higher. High school I am quite sure will be far worse. How about you? Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I didn't notice that big a jump with middle school, but I do know that there was quite a jump for high school! I haven't looked yet at exactly how much I spent over the last year, but we live in one of the three states that offers a tax deduction for homeschool materials, and I have all my receipts. I have to organize them over the next few weeks, so I'll get to see exactly how much we spent on each kid. My feeling is that I spent about the same on my 7th grader as I did on my 4th grader though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSNative Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I didn't notice that big a jump with middle school, but I do know that there was quite a jump for high school! I haven't looked yet at exactly how much I spent over the last year, but we live in one of the three states that offers a tax deduction for homeschool materials, and I have all my receipts. I have to organize them over the next few weeks, so I'll get to see exactly how much we spent on each kid. My feeling is that I spent about the same on my 7th grader as I did on my 4th grader though. Yes and no. The supplies and extras cost more, but I've gotten better at finding used. I also have gotten better at picking curriculum so we don't have as many duds. We've also moved to a better library system which has helped tremendously. I fear high school. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeinfl Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 My jump was not for middle school, but for high school. I was in total shock at how much more expensive everything was for the high school level. :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Yes and no. The supplies and extras cost more, but I've gotten better at finding used. I also have gotten better at picking curriculum so we don't have as many duds. We've also moved to a better library system which has helped tremendously. I fear high school. :) Sort of a mixed bag for me as well. There are some things that I'm quite sure I want (and will actually use) that I'm willing to pay for. I looked into using a foreign language correspondence course and realized that for $400+ for two kids, I could afford to get quite a bit of material and still not come close to this cost. I have a good background in German, so it is just a matter of doing it. But at the same time, I've come to the realization that my kids get just as much out of reading a lot of science and history books as from doing a scheduled program. I probably won't buy much more middle school science curriculum, but will go a la WTM with reading and writing summaries. At most I'll spring for good experiment books (I like the TOPS science modules that Sonlight uses). When we get closer to high school, I'm anticipating a good outlay for science gear so we can do biology, chemistry and physics labs (but I'll recoup some of this when I don't have to spend it on #3). One of the benefits of using the WTM read and write approach is that you aren't wedded to one particular set of titles. I think that several of the big curriculum names have to keep updating because books they have used have gone out of print. I know that a number of the books we got 5-7 years ago from Veritas Press are no longer easily available. But that doesn't mean that they aren't good books to use if I have them sitting on my shelf or at the local library. The last year or so I've been using the Sonlight schedule for a few weeks as an intro to a culture or time period, then spending several weeks with other readings so that my kids can indulge their passions (Roman food, medieval siege weapons, castles, crusades, etc). The area where our expense has gone way down is in learning to read material. We were overseas during the time when all three of our sons moved from beginning to emergent readers. It is expensive to keep a kid in leveled readers and early chapter books if you don't have a good library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnandtinagilbert Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Math seems to get much pricier once Algebra kicks in. So does science, particularly the expense of labs. Cost is one reason I'm considering letting ds, a mathy kid, just do FLVS (it's free and I *think* Geometry is Geometry). Clothes cost more, too, as style matters a little more. And haircuts. My limited skills work fine in grammar school, I just don't do a good enough job to keep the boys in trend :) Church activities have increased in time and price, too. Tax returns save the day and what was an annual budget is now a monthly bleeding...$20 here or there for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakarimom5 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I have spent $80 total this year for my preschooler and my 7th grader. Next year we move into Algebra and I'm looking at Teaching Textbooks. Just that alone is over double what I spent this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 Did you piece together your own curriculum or were you given materials? I buy used and still don't get it that low, although some years, if I count what I sold and what I bought, it is less than I actually think it is. Dawn I have spent $80 total this year for my preschooler and my 7th grader. Next year we move into Algebra and I'm looking at Teaching Textbooks. Just that alone is over double what I spent this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 For me it wasn't the curriculum that cost more, but all the classes they suddenly wanted to take. The classes are costing me a great deal, but at least I am in a charter school. The school covers the cost of some of the classes. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I am starting to buy for next year's Gr. 7 and I am seeing, already, that that year is going to be more expensive than the years before. But I buy all of our lit. books because I hate the limits that come with borrowing from the buying. I also buy new because I have been burned twice with buying used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I started trying to collect items for middle school and high school while my older son was still in elementary. I bought used, library sales, discount bookstores, etc. In that way, I think that I kept my costs down more. I also kept those things to re-use with my younger son. Now that he's cycling through materials for perhaps the last time, I'm culling as I finish using items that may have been on my shelves a long time. I would say that my largest expense came with more outside classes for high school, as those can be very expensive. Even if you're doing all classes at home, the higher level texts you may require will cost substantially more, even if you find them used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlugbill Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 My dd is in 7th and it's the extra-curriculars that are costing us big bucks! She plays violin, flute, piano, & plays in an ensemble & orchestra. She has gotten into doing musicals and has parts in plays that cost $$ also. Then, she does gymnastics twice a week. So, it's somewhere around $500-$600/month. That's before any books. Books are nothing. We just do a couple of subjects and use CLE for math (cheap) and Saxon (Hake) for grammar and writing and Sequential Spelling (cheap) then we use library books and borrow books from the school system for other subjects. Then, there is summer camp and music camp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakarimom5 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Did you piece together your own curriculum or were you given materials? I buy used and still don't get it that low, although some years, if I count what I sold and what I bought, it is less than I actually think it is. Dawn When I first started this year I had nothing. Then my cover school sent out an email about the local community college giving away free textbooks. I went and, while I got a lot, only use the Holt preAlgebra book. I bought WS3 for about $7 including shipping from abebooks.com, Muzzy French complete set brand new at a consignment sale for $10. I bought R&S workbooks for my preschooler for $26. SOTW1 book and AG from amazon for I think around $32. This comes out to $75...if I added right;) I use a free online spelling course http://www.splashesfromtheriver.com/spelling/spelling-lesson-1-5.htm Science I do online at jason.org. My copywork comes from quotegarden.com. I am teaching my 7th grader cursive since he never got it in ps. I use donnayoung.org for that. We do map skills too but I just print out maps and laminate them and we write on them with a dry erase marker. I do have shelves upon shelves of lit books and stuff I've bought at thrift stores or the library. I need to weed out but I keep thinking I might "need" it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I wouldn't be surprised to spend 1,000 on three kids. Math cost me a lot more this year. I bought the singapore HIG and those are pricy. I also bought LOF books. That about killed me. Science was a lot pricer as well. Those disections kits can add up. I wasn't able to swing a microscope. Thank goodness, my boys, although 5 years apart, seem to be very similar in learning style...so far. I am thinking that at least for grammar stage I am all set for ds2. I will only need consumables replaced. One good thing is that my husband is a librarian at a major university and directs part of the interlibrary loan system. If it is in a library in this country I can get it. He is on his way home with the Oxford History in Ancient Times volume for Greece along with the student and teacher's guide. I can keep them for 6 weeks. I can also get any reading list book for as long as I want. Those darn FLL and WWE workbooks are a lot. I have never been able to find one used. I have heard that high school is astounding. Science and math are rumored to be very, very expensive. I will be leaning very heavily on the libraries for those years and try to only buy what I cannot borrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Yes... I have found there is a jump, not as big as what we've got when high school begins, but it is noticeable. Some of it is because I am purchasing reference books (they are available at the Library, but all 5 children are going to need to look at them, and we're going to need them every single week.) In addition, there are a couple of on-line classes my oldest will be taking. In addition, we've been in with K12 for the last 4 years, the science and history my oldest son did for two years will be replaced by VP and Apologia, so that's additional programs I am purchasing that normally wouldn't *have* to be purchased for younger children. In some ways, it's like starting over. Thankfully, most of the materials are re-usable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cheryl in SoCal Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Yes, though not as large a jump as for high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 Good for you!~ I took a look at that spelling curriculum. I don't think it will work for my struggling speller....but great if it works with your kids! I know there are free resources and I know I could do this less expensively.....sometimes I go for convenience. Thanks for sharing your info. Dawn When I first started this year I had nothing. Then my cover school sent out an email about the local community college giving away free textbooks. I went and, while I got a lot, only use the Holt preAlgebra book. I bought WS3 for about $7 including shipping from abebooks.com, Muzzy French complete set brand new at a consignment sale for $10. I bought R&S workbooks for my preschooler for $26. SOTW1 book and AG from amazon for I think around $32. This comes out to $75...if I added right;) I use a free online spelling course http://www.splashesfromtheriver.com/spelling/spelling-lesson-1-5.htm Science I do online at jason.org. My copywork comes from quotegarden.com. I am teaching my 7th grader cursive since he never got it in ps. I use donnayoung.org for that. We do map skills too but I just print out maps and laminate them and we write on them with a dry erase marker. I do have shelves upon shelves of lit books and stuff I've bought at thrift stores or the library. I need to weed out but I keep thinking I might "need" it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakarimom5 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Good for you!~ I took a look at that spelling curriculum. I don't think it will work for my struggling speller....but great if it works with your kids! I know there are free resources and I know I could do this less expensively.....sometimes I go for convenience. Thanks for sharing your info. Dawn My 7th grader struggles in spelling too...whoever thought inventive spelling was a good idea is crazy. But I have found that if he keeps rewriting the words he "gets" it...finally. And his handwriting is better too;) I tried in the beginning to use only free resources from the net but it just wasn't great. But there are great free resources to supplement what you already have. I love the Homeschool Freebie of the Day. My thoughts are that the younger the child, the more stuff you can find online for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poke Salad Annie Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) I was thinking about this yesterday during a trip to the local (very modest) library. Even with the limited number of books there, I found some amazing gems, several of them which fit well within the WTM suggestions for logic stage. What seems so possible is to simply wander the rows during the summer, picking and choosing what appeals to me and would be fuel for nice discussions and writing. I mean truly, it's all there, just not in a convenient form, but maybe we all give ourselves short shrift in the teaching department. I know it's taken me these last several years to realize that I can do this, and probably can do it well. That's how I see it anyway, and that's how I'm going to approach the logic stage years. What's so bad about reading a great book together and then discussing it together, then giving a writing assignment. It's all there too---vocabulary, grammar, lit study, and so on. You really only need a math program, right? I am coming to the realization that a much more simplified day will be ahead of us. Editing... Knowing that the Khan Academy videos are out there gives me relief from any math worries I may have. I'm not even thinking about tackling chemistry yet, but if I do, we'll be looking into getting help from (hopefully) a retired teacher from the local community college. Again, I'm saying all this, as I'm just getting my feet under myself as I'm looking forward too, so I have a lot of the same concerns. Edited January 22, 2011 by Poke Salad Annie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poke Salad Annie Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Disclaimer: I am operating on about three hours of sleep, so if nothing of what I've posted make sense, please disregard. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Yes, the cost jumps in middle school and even climbs higher in high school. In elementary, I could easily add to our yearly cost, but it wasn't necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2cents Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Our costs didn't increase in terms of texts for subjects like math and science because we always paid a lot for those particular subjects. For history, language arts and some of the other electives it has become less expensive because they are doing more FLVS and College Opencourseware. For outside classes it has become more expensive because we need upper level courses and teacher accountability that we don't find at many of our local coops. We've found good courses at the museums and local businesses instead. So, it is a mixed bag for us-some stuff costs more-some less. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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