Estimated curriculum cost for 4 kids?

[joannqn]

How much, total, would you expect to for curriculum spend on:

 

a 9th grader

a 7th grader doing the same level work as the 9th grader

a 1st grader

and a 3 year old (will be 4 this summer) who was mad for months this school year because I didn't buy her her own Handwriting Without Tears and MUS Primer books. I was able to appease her with a partially used PreK workbook until it was completed. She is now working through a PreK to K summer bridge workbook, which she can do fairly well.

 

Just a ballpark. I've priced out what I want to buy. DH is a little freaked. It's our first year with high school stuff, and I have two of them needing it at once. Wondering if I'm at least within reason.

[elizabeth rose]

well. I don't know what you are using, stuff can vary greatly, but for my two I spent around $650 for next year. I guess if you spent $1000 it wouldn't surprise me.

[tonersl]

I would figure about $1000-$1200 for myself to purchase for those ages but like others have said, it truly can vary greatly. Shop around, ask to borrow from others, buy used, etc.. to cut costs, if necessary.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

it really depends on what you are looking at, the science supplies you will need and other things. This coming year I spent $1000 for ds, but last year it was only about $400. I do not need science supplies now so that helps, but one year I needed a Microscope which will add $200-400 to a budget. Another thing, have you looked for used curriculum? there are certain curriculum you can find by the boatload on ebay for very cheap...BJU, Apologia, Abeka are some I have bought from ebay for pennies on the dollar and they are in almost like new condition.

 

An idea for your little one...you can buy real cheap workbooks at Barnes and Nobel or other places that can be used for preschool and meet her need for her own things. Sometimes I found them at the dollar store.

 

ETA: For 4 children I have spent as much as $3500 and as little as $700.

[gingersmom]

I am sure mine is in the high end but it will be about $1500+

[Hunter]

A lot of moms spend a lot more on 9th grade than they can afford, on items they are not equipped to teach.

 

When searching forums and reading books there is a one-size-fits-all mentality for high school that is not present for elementary. Many parents are shamed into attempting to provide an education that is 2 steps above the subculture they are living in and the type of education they themselves had.

 

Planning 9th grade is scary for many moms. Fear can cause us to make bad decisions. Fear is information, but must not be acted upon without pulling back and looking at ALL our options.

 

:grouphug:

[Serenade]

My total for next year, with an upcoming 8th grader and an upcoming 5th grader, will be $1300 -- $1500. Next year they are doing their own history program (previously I combined), and my older son is getting into more expensive science and math books. I am definitely feeling the expense of the (almost) high school years. I imagine it will be worse as he gets older. My younger son should be able to reuse some things, but probably not all. If I had to really cut back, I could probably do it for $1000, but I'd be scrimping. I'm trying to divide my purchases up -- some this month, some next month, and the last batch in June.

 

ETA: My expenses include lab supplies and some teaching DVDs.

[Mandy in TN]

Another vote for varies greatly

 

If you were to order a 7th grade, 1st grade, and PK from Calvert and 9th from another online source like Keystone, it could easily be over $8000. Why don't you pull the numbers for that and for a local private school and show those to your dh?

 

OTOH, how much would it be if you bought everyone, including the little one, LifePack or CLE? Wouldn't that still be over $800 before any lab supplies?

 

So, not including outside classes, anywhere between $800 (w/o lab supplies) and $8000, could be considered reasonable.

HTH-

Mandy

[8filltheheart]

It depends on how much I already own, are they taking outsourced classes, do I need to buy supplies for labs, etc. Our high school yrs vary dramatically with each student. I have spent next to nothing b/c I already owned most of what was needed or I have spent close to $7000 when factoring in university classes, texts, fees, and private tutors.

 

FWIW, to keep down costs, buy older editions of texts. Most don't change much in content and they are far cheaper.

[Tess in the Burbs]

no one can estimate this for you. Some people use a lot of free resources and put together their own thing. Heck, I think next year I am spending over $1k on my 6th grader but much less on my 5th grader. Some years we did both under $500. It depends on the curriculum you chose. Impossible to truly answer.

[joannqn]

Thanks for the information. I'm at $1700. While there are cheaper options, the options I've chosen were specifically researched and chosen as what I think would work best for us. Now to see if I can reduce the cost. I spent about an hour last night looking for used and didn't have a lot of luck.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Thanks for the information. I'm at $1700. While there are cheaper options, the options I've chosen were specifically researched and chosen as what I think would work best for us. Now to see if I can reduce the cost. I spent about an hour last night looking for used and didn't have a lot of luck.

 

See, now I was going to post only to help you sway your DH to your position. :tongue_smilie: My budget for homeschool is $250/month. I set it aside and buy as I need/wish to during the year. (This does not include extracurriculars like music and swim either.) I buy lots of good science and art supplies and whatever curriculum I feel is best (pretty much regardless of price tag, although I do buy $$$ things used when possible). I buy lots of books and supplements, because my kids thrive on the fun extras. Honestly, I think this is a bargain for the quality of education my kids are getting!

[Soror]

I was going to guess $1500. I spent $1000+ this year. I could have spent less but I built up our libary quite a bit and tried some programs out that I was interested in doing like- MCT, TtC, and our other programs are more expensive ones ie Right Start and Logic of English. I also included in that games, art supplies and other fun things.

[joannqn]

DH fully supports homeschooling; it's just getting more expensive every year. This year, I added a third school-age child. Next year, we add high school to the mix. For the five years preceding this one, most of our curriculum and supplies were bought by a virtual public school that we were enrolled in. During those years, I was able to choose pretty much any curriculum I wanted provided it wasn't religious and I didn't go over the allowed $1200 per student. The state changed the laws which made it so the program was no longer an option for us. We spent around $1200 this year. So...tack on another $500 for next year.

 

We do not have enough in our monthly income to budget for school throughout the year. We have to rely on special projects that come up from time to time for some of our bigger needs. Fortunately, it has always worked out, but it is nerve-racking to not have those things covered more reliably.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I've got a 6th gr. and 4th gr., we don't do a lot of extras, mostly just basics(math, science, history, writing, spelling). I think I spent around $500(maybe another $250 in failed math programs). Next year DS will be a 7th grader and we will be doing Bio and some kind of formal lit class. I'm thinking of investing in a better microscope and farming out the writing and Lit. so my expensesw will be going way up.

[happymomofboys]

Thanks for the information. I'm at $1700. While there are cheaper options, the options I've chosen were specifically researched and chosen as what I think would work best for us. Now to see if I can reduce the cost. I spent about an hour last night looking for used and didn't have a lot of luck.

 

I think $1700 is extremely reasonable, if you can afford it. That's the key. I did a lot of research for long-term planning while my kids were both still in the grammar stage and decided that TOG would be the right fit for us. Then my husband lost his job (our only source of income) and had to go back to school for a year. I had to dip into our savings to pay for what I needed for the coming school year. We're going to have to use the library as much as possible and buy used where we can. I have no idea what is going to happen in future years and we may not be able to buy any more year-plans after Year 2. It's for this reason that I've started researching and gathering as many free materials from the internet as I can (see the blog in my signature) so that I can piece together a comparable education for my children if we suddenly don't have the money for school.

 

I would suggest that you show your husband the prices for the big name homeschool curriculum suppliers next to what you've chosen. Explain to him why you think your choices are better for your kids. However, if the budget just isn't there, you might consider deciding what is most important to keep and what could be substituted with a less expensive alternative. For me, the ability to keep homeschooling is much more important than the materials we use.