Freshman- minimum cost

[MomatHWTK]

If someone who had never homeschooled and might not be very good at putting their own materials together (mentions using workbooks, etc.) asked you how much it would cost to purchase materials for a freshman what is the minimum you would tell them? I don't want to exaggerate the costs, but I've spent years putting together an eclectic mix of materials and spend pretty freely on online classes and extras so I can't give a good answer.

 

I know that homeschooling can be done on a tight budget, but I think it would be harder to start from scratch for highschool. :confused1:

[caroljenn]

This was our first full year and I spent:

$450? on My Father's World Ancient - history, English and Bible

$60 on workbooks/ textbooks for Spanish (ebay)

$80 on workbook/ textbook for Algebra 2

$150 for Latin curriculum

$79? for Apologia Chemistry plus $40 for Prentice Hall Chemistry to supplement

 

I also signed my daughter up for co-op classes, and she has a tutor to teach her Alg and Spanish, which you don't have to do, but it helped round out our year. If you're going to do bare minimum, I would say $600-700. The big MFW curriculum was not available on Ebay, so I bought all of that new.

[regentrude]

Math: a good math book. ours is $65 including solution manual

Science: an old edition used introductory college science text - under $10

Foreign language: $100

If parent does not speak, one would need book, workbook, audio CDs or free online resources. Our Italian program cost $100 because I paid for CDs; without them, using the free online audio it would have been only $50. I paid about $100 for French: textbook, website access for video/audio, lab workbook.

History: spine text - $5

Literature - free from the library

science lab is the big wild card- can be free if parent can self-design to $200 for a labpaq kit

all the rest can be done with free online resources.

[Parrothead]

I've spent +/- $600 for the first year of high school. Almost $200 of that was in lab supplies.

[elegantlion]

It depends, we had a very tight budget and I spent around 300 to 400, and that was bare minimum items. If she needs laid out curriculum, it is going to cost more. If she just wants workbooks, something like Power Basics runs about 50/ subject.

[G5052]

This year it was around $500, but that was with mostly used books and excludes a paid online class. I usually buy books a year ahead, and do a lot of Paperback Swap, used bookstore, and library sale books, and I buy most of the rest at discount through a friend. And I already own a lot of lab equipment, but I still had to buy about $80 of add-ons.

 

Next year will be more on the lab end for high school, but the books will be significantly less. I already have most of the books. My 8th grader will actually be a little more expensive because the booklist is a little different than what I've used before and some of the editions changed.

[sandalwood]

I've spent +/- $600 for the first year of high school. Almost $200 of that was in lab supplies.

 

Ditto... Lab expenses are a big item every year unless you know someone who has the supplies to share or can share the cost with you.

[1Togo]

We've done high school for about $400 per year with Robinson curriculum bought at a curriculum sale, Saxon math, and free/used materials for science and foreign language, but I did a lot of prep work, planning, and research. With one student left, we spend more because we are using dvds for math and science as well as Lukeion for Latin (love, love this), so the yearly cost is about $1,200. The bulk of that is the Latin class and science/math materials. I was energetic and younger when we first began homeschooling.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Our biggest expenses:

German. $250 for a year of German Online with OSU. Self paced which is both good and bad. Includes weekly speaking phone calls.

Latin. $500 per year with Lukeion. Incredible instruction. Weekly class sessions and set in stone homework and quiz deadlines. Very talented instructor. They are learning a lot including how to keep up with everything else and not devote whole school days to Latin.

Science. I could get the older edition text for about $20. But I also paid for a new text and the teacher materials and online Mastering Physics access. I probably could have gotten what I needed with just buying the text and MP access but I wanted to be totally sure I was getting teacher materials. Cost was around $350 before lab materials. For physics most of our lab stuff is found items and videos. If I were counseling someone else I might suggest a more standard homeschool provider the first year. Apologia or Holt or the scheduled programs through Kolbe. Less expensive and more pre-planned.

 

History has been home created. You can follow wtm and be just as happy as with a packaged program. Libraries are full of great books.

 

Literature is also inexpensive if you use the library or used bookstores. Solid editions of classics are a couple dollars each. If you really feel uncomfortable teaching lit get Windows to the World. If using at home I think you can go either way on the supplemental syllabus from Jill Pike.

 

Math. We switch between aops which is about $70 and old editions of Dolciani that I've bought for $5. Dolciani solution sets are tough to find. My kids already do a lot online. I don't want them doing math online everyday. They read the lessons and work problems out to understand. Then if they are really stuck we look at Khan Academy or Alcumus videos.

[flyingiguana]

We spend very little. We get used textbooks, so they're either very cheap or free.

 

But it depends on whether the parent has the background to help with math and science. I think one might have to pay something for outside help if that were an issue.

 

Foreign language can be done pretty cheaply if Spanish or French is the language of choice -- with those you can use Destinos or French in Action, where all the materials except text and workbook are on the web. (We also added Pimsleur to the mix, but got that for free from the library.) Even though I started this adventure knowing no Spanish myself, we didn't find we needed any outside help. However, our goal wasn't fluency, but getting to what one would expect out of a standard high school foreign language program. (I knew some French, but I'd certainly never hire myself out as a French tutor, and, as it turned out, the kids never wanted to learn French.)

 

In high school you probably want to move away from workbooks anyway. It doesn't cost much to read and then write about what one read, and that's probably a big part of what high school should cover.

 

We generally do each high school year for something around 0-50 dollars (excluding things like music lessons), but that's because we don't need outside help for most subjects. And we already own a ton of books. I'm constantly picking up very cheap items at book sales -- we end up using a lot of old textbooks that other people were going to throw out. So we'd have to spend a bit more if I didn't have this built up reserve of stuff, but not much.

[TCB]

Foreign language: $100

If parent does not speak, one would need book, workbook, audio CDs or free online resources. Our Italian program cost $100 because I paid for CDs; without them, using the free online audio it would have been only $50. I paid about $100 for French: textbook, website access for video/audio, lab workbook.

 

 

 

Don't want to hijack the thread but I wondered if you could tell me which program you use. My dd is taking a Spanish 1 class at the school this year and would like to carry on with Spanish. It's a lot of driving each day for 1 class so we're thinking of doing it at home next year.

 

Thanks,

Trenna

[Nscribe]

@ $500.00 seems to be the number I hear most.

 

Workbooks/Consumables can be budget munchers. It is often like the whole textbook discussion, some people view them as far too conventional and school-like to be worthy of the lofty ideals of homeschool. We have found that some of them are really efficient and effective and bolster our less formalized approaches in other areas. I remember cringing at the idea of spending @55.00 on Hake Grammar 8. It turned out to be some of the best money ever spent. I could have covered the same for free, it was comprehensive, provided an abundance of practice and we wound up with a resource book that we intend to hold on to for several years. It also freed up my attention to spend more time on sciences and spend less there while knowing Dd was marching through a solid review of grammar. On the other hand, some consumables have been a flop.

 

I asked a 9th grade public school mom recently what they spent for the year. She noted examples of 35.00 required gym outfit, 75.00 lab fee, 25.00 school pictures, 25.00 yearbook, 30.00 on candles for a fundraiser, 15.00 PTA dues of some sort, and constant requests for band/arts booster clubs...then she noted in future years there would be parking passes and so forth... They have programs to cover some of these fees/costs for those with need and are often asking for donations for that as well. She noted being particularly bugged by a $5.00 bumper sticker that was not technically required to be purchased but "everybody did it". The point being that even public school is not completely free.

 

We found we save a great deal on clothing and trends as compared with traditionally schooled kids. Even little things like snacks are less. The PS mom pointed out she buys individual bottled drinks that would be less if she could buy by the gallon/liter or individually wrapped snacks that would be cheaper if the kids were home.

 

My point with this is that sometimes it doesn't hurt to look back and see what was spent the previous year because the student was in a traditional school as part of the consideration.

[regentrude]

 

 

Don't want to hijack the thread but I wondered if you could tell me which program you use. My dd is taking a Spanish 1 class at the school this year and would like to carry on with Spanish. It's a lot of driving each day for 1 class so we're thinking of doing it at home next year.

 

Thanks,

Trenna

 

For Italian we use Prego! An Invitation to Italian.

Companion website is here: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073535265/student_view0/

 

For French, we had used a lot of different things; for the last course, Espaces, with paid access to the supersite.

[TCB]

 

For Italian we use Prego! An Invitation to Italian.

Companion website is here: http://highered.mcgr.../student_view0/

 

For French, we had used a lot of different things; for the last course, Espaces, with paid access to the supersite.

 

 

 

Thankyou. I'll look at those.

[Candid]

I'd probably give her a higher number or a range 500 - 1000. That would allow her to buy some out of the box sort of materials.

[Mom22ns]

It depends so much on the individual. If she is a workbook person, LifePaks 5 subject grade kit is less than $300.

 

You can see my eclectic mix in my sig. I am planning to spend about $900 for 2 high schoolers next year plus the college Japanese classes ds will be taking.

[MomatHWTK]

Well, I went with the answer of about $50 per subject minimum unless you wanted to invest a lot of time and effort finding and using free resources. (This is someone who planned to continue working full time.) I am certain that if the parent were motivated and the need was great and education could be had on a tight budget but the level of dedication would have to be pretty high.

[In The Great White North]

I think she's going to have a hard time finding workbooks for high school at all.

 

9th grade was our first year and cost less than $100, mostly in office supplies. We used older books and didn't have chemistry that year.

 

As the years went by, our expenses have gone up: lab stuff, Rosetta Stone, a PA Homeschoolers course, AOPS, Classical Writing etc. It's easy to find new and exciting, expensive stuff to do.

[flyingiguana]

 

 

Don't want to hijack the thread but I wondered if you could tell me which program you use. My dd is taking a Spanish 1 class at the school this year and would like to carry on with Spanish. It's a lot of driving each day for 1 class so we're thinking of doing it at home next year.

 

Thanks,

Trenna

 

We've been using Destinos, which has a lot of free stuff online:

http://www.learner.org/series/destinos/

(or just the videos here: http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html )

 

It's also easy to get the textbook cheap if you look for it used. This has a lot of grammar and readings in it.

 

There's a workbook as well, which I think uses the audio from an online site. I don't have the link with me, but I know my daughter is still using it, so it must still be available. Let me know if you want me to find it.

 

Our only complaint about Destinos is that it goes a bit fast and some of the people in the videos talk too fast. We've discovered that starting with Pimsleur makes the Destinos so much easier.

[Lori D.]

If someone who had never homeschooled and might not be very good at putting their own materials together (mentions using workbooks, etc.) asked you how much it would cost to purchase materials for a freshman what is the minimum you would tell them? I don't want to exaggerate the costs, but I've spent years putting together an eclectic mix of materials and spend pretty freely on online classes and extras so I can't give a good answer.

 

I know that homeschooling can be done on a tight budget, but I think it would be harder to start from scratch for highschool. :confused1:

 

 

There are so many variables it is hard to advise:

- Does the student have special needs? -- specialized coursework costs more

- How many credits will the family be doing? And which ones -- some of the science and foreign language programs can get pricey.

- Will the family need a lot of teacher support materials, or want to outsource some coursework? -- programs with DVD lessons, grading service options, or online classes tend to cost more.

- What about extracurriculars? -- some can be counted towards a class credit; it's also very helpful to have outside activities when making the transition to schooling at home.

 

 

For high school, a good rule of thumb is to plan on $100-200 per credit. So 5 credits (classes/subjects) = $500-1000; 6 credits = $600-1200. It's wonderful how much all the previous posters have saved and all the great ideas for doing homeschooling high school inexpensively (we should do a thread on that! ;)) -- BUT, especially if you are new to homeschooling, you're not going to know about all the deals, how to shop used, how to piece it together yourself, etc.

 

Especially if you are just starting to homeschool, using an all-in-one box curriuculum can be very helpful; you have all you need in one place, which allows you to focus on making the transition into how YOUR family will do school at home. A secular, all-in-one option is K-12, which can be free if done via enrollment in a local public charter school.

 

Another option is if the family is willing to go "a la carte", and pick separate programs for each subject, they might find a homeschooling community near them willing to help them out by loaning materials to get them started. Or, they could consider buying materials. However, while there are many ways to reduce costs, as you suggest in your post, it often means either doing it piecemeal. It also may mean ending up with resources that are not a very good fit for either the student's learning style, or the parent's teaching style or need of teaching support resources.

 

 

An aside: JMO, but I think the MOST important thing to think through and address when shifting to homeschooling (especially when also planning for the last 4 years of school of high school), is NOT cost, but GOALS. Once you know clearly and specifically what your reasons are for homeschooling, and then what your goals are for homeschooling and for the high school years, you more clearly see how much you will need to budget for homeschooling in order to accomplish your goals -- and then you can begin looking for ways to cut costs.

 

Homeschooling high school is a huge undertaking, and, again, JMO, but I think it needs to be approached from the perspective of: "Homeschooling high school is important to us for these reasons _________ (list reasons), and therefore, we are willing to readjust our family priorities, including the budget, to make it happen because it is that important." . . . . . . . Rather than thinking of it as, "Let's homeschool high school; how can we do inexpensively so that it fits into our current budget."

 

Here are two past posts of mine with questions to help a family think through goals and make a high school plan, and questions to help pick curriculum.

 

 

What a great resource and encouragement you are to walk this path with your friend! BEST of luck as they work their way to a final decision! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[MomatHWTK]

Well, thanks but I'm not really going to walk that path.

 

I just wanted to make sure my advice was realistc but not biased. I do believe that anyone can homeschool, but I don't know that everyone would want to do what it takes. KWIM?

[Beth S]

My quick addition is that I believe it depends on how thrifty the friend wishes to be. There are many previous WTM threads that demonstrate the huge range of $$ people spend to homeschool. ("Barely cheaper than private school" to "I borrowed it all from a friend".)

 

Usually people save time by spending more money. And vice versa. I recently read another WTM thread that suggested asking the friend open-ended questions to help her think through the challenges she will face when homeschooling.

 

You can usually shop longer to find cheaper, used or equivalent items.

You can usually hand-me-down the curriculum to a younger sibling.

You can usually re-sale at least some of what you purchased.

 

But that all requires time, effort, shopping, etc. which are sometimes difficult to do if you are not super-motivated.

If the 9th grader is being pulled from a public school life that he loved, the adjustments will be tremendous.

Everyone has a different perspective on all of this! But thank you for trying to help this friend.

[Rain]

We're using Ambleside Online this year, with most books from the library. I've spent about $50 on books that I wanted to *have* rather than just borrow.

 

Math we're using Aleks.com, which is $20/month (so over 9 months, that's $180)

 

Science we're using an old textbook of graduated step-son's that he used in 11th grade (free). Dd says it's very, very easy and wants to know if she can do something else, so we may need to add to that.

 

Spanish we're using Destinos, and I got the texts and workbook and prep guide (which it turns out I didn't need) for about $20.

 

Literature we're doing Literary Lessons through Lord of the Rings, which cost about $120.

 

Dd is doing Novel Writing with IEW's materials with a friend. That was about $25 I want to say.

 

We bought a watercolor book plus materials, for about $50. Everything else is making use of things we already have or getting classical CDs and such from the library.

 

So... $405. That doesn't include the two semesters of Landry Academy, because I don't consider those to be required courses. We are using them as electives, and they are science courses and we have science in that biology book if we needed to cut costs.