Many first time homescooling parents go into the process believing that teaching their children at home is going to be less expensive than sending them to a public school. Unfortunately, they soon realize that this is not true. Here are a few heads under which a typical homeschool family will incur expenses.
Curriculum and Text Books
The homeschool students will require a curriculum to follow. Since there are a number of choices, the parents will have to pick one which meets all their academic and financial requirements. Some curriculums include workbooks and text books, others do not. In either case some expenses will be incurred.
Tests and Evaluations
Standard testing is required by some states to prove that homeschool students are at par with their peers in the regular schools. These are administered by specialists and will cost some extra amount. There may be an option to get the child tested at the local public school, but then the results will be sent to the school.
Reference Books and Teaching Material
The text books related to the curriculum are usually enough to get by in the homeschool classroom. However sometimes a particular topic may interest the homeschool student and they may want to research it in depth. This would involve buying reference books and additional teaching material.
School Supplies
Note books, pencils, pens, crayons, paints, drawing sheets, staplers, hole punches, glue sticks, board markers, erasers, files, folders, scissors, and the like are school supplies that will be required to be bought. These can be bought in bulk to save money in the long term, but a certain level of initial investment will be required.
Extra Curricular Lessons
Music classes to learn an instrument, coaching for sports such as football or basket ball, learning a foreign language like French or German, consists of taking extra lessons from an expert. This set of extra curricular lessons will have their own fees and expenses in terms of equipment required. The homeschool parent will need to factor in these expenses in the budget as well, proving that homeschool expenses are not always less than those incurred by students in regular school.
