Homeschooling costs for the 24/25 school year

2024-12-31

It's that time of the year when I close my books on the costs for the current school year. Take a big breath, and then in late February I'll start planning, putting down deposits and hunting for supplies for the next school year.

The first thing you need to understand, is the homeschool unicorn. 🦄 It's this mythical curriculum you can get for your child that is:

• rigorous
• easy to use
• free / low-cost

Now most curriculum for homeschoolers fit one of the three. You can even get two of those bullet points if you look around and do your research. Unfortunately something that is all three does not exist. Even if the marketing on the curriculum promises it.

I work full-time as a software engineer and I'm the primary homeschooling parent for my children. I'm also a secular, eclectic, academic[1] homeschooler which in homeschooling circles is pretty small segment. What that means is, I have to have an easy-to-use curriculum since 40+ hours of my week are for work, I want rigorous curriculum choices customized to my kids and I'm not interested in anything religious or masquerading as secular or that whitewashes history which removes many curriculum choices and communities.

So rigorous and easy-to-use means that I spend $$$. These numbers are what I spend and are not representative of other homeschoolers.

I'm sharing this in part to be more open in general but also because I come across countless posts in homeschooling groups about a homeschooling parent who wants to/must work full-time and is looking for a unicorn. If you work, the biggest hurdle becomes time. I don't have time to chase deals, or go to the library, or spend hours making a free curriculum work. As my kids get older and their learning requires more time for understanding and cementing concepts... I can't make that time magically appear in my schedule. What I can do, is pay others for their time.

So here is my real world example:

My son, age 14, 9th Grade (1st year of high school):

[2]

• Homeschool Consulting with simplify[3] - $1,500 per year. I think of this as paying for his guidance counselor. They make sure we are on track to fulfill high school requirements, help me find resources, and talk one-on-one with my son to understand his goals and aspirations.
• Honors Biology from taylormadescience.com[4] - $775. Includes lab kit, video lectures, quizzes, exams, grading, one hour per week live with the licensed teacher and doing labs over zoom with other homeschooling students. The textbook I got used for $10.
• Online Falcons from falconsedu[5] - $3,375. This is his third and last year with the Falcon's. I'm considering this an integrated humanities class as far as transcripts go. I'm not sure how to best describe it, other than awesome. Maybe check out this blog post I did for his 8th grade year[6]. It's also a large social outlet for him.
• Honors Geometry from Derek Owens[7] - $600. He has access to lecture videos and textbook assignments. Homework is done on paper and scanned in to be graded, by a human, with grades and detailed feedback sent back. The teacher is prompt when answering my son's emailed questions and has proactively reached out when my son was struggling on a topic. The textbook I got used for $30 and the workbooks I got printed and shipped for $50.
• World History: Africa and Asia with Aim Academy[8] - $649. This is a wonderful class that meets live one hour a week. The book list and movie list are intense and the history content does not pull any punches. My son loves the class so far. I spent around $120 for the eight books and $20 or so renting the assigned movies.
• Literature from Build Your Library[9] - $300. This is a full curriculum but we are only using the literature portion of it. I assign the readings, we discuss, and then he writes about the literature with feedback from his writing tutor. The cost include the price of the PDF and paper copies of the nineteen books.
• Writing tutor - $1,800 per year. He meets with his tutor for one hour per week and then does assignments she assigns independently. Together with Literature this will count as a 1 credit ELA course.
• Contributing to Scientific Understanding from Athena's Academy[10] - $375. This was a one semester class and he had one hour per week live with the teacher.
• Astronomy from g3[11] - $275. This is a high school level astronomy class that is adapted from a college level textbook. The textbook I got used for $89.
• European Portuguese - $230. He is using Practice Portuguese[12] and we are working through a Portuguese textbook Bom Dia![13] together.

Whew. So that comes to $10,198.

But, I have two kids!

My daughter, age 12, 7th grade

[14]

• Prealgebra from Derek Owens[15] - $640. Same provider as my son above. Prealgebra doesn't have a textbook but it does need two workbooks.
• Online Falcons from falconsedu[5] - $3,375. This is her second year with the Falcon's and she loves it!
• Spelling from spellingyousee[16] - $60. She tolerates this 🤣
• Melancholy Grammar with Creative Writing from Mint and Bloom[17] - $40. She loves this! It fits her perfectly and she asks to do it first thing everyday.
• Science - 175*. I purchased the upcoming Astronomy course for her to use in the spring. This fall, since I own every Science Mom[18] course she choose to use microbiology.
• History - free*. It's free only because I already own the materials. She's doing Curiosity Chronicles[19]
• Literature - free*. After five years homeschooling (and buying all the materials because I can't even squeeze in time to go to the library with their limited hours) I have an abundance of books. She just grabs stuff of the shelf she wants to read.
• [Health: The Chat: Stanford Medicine] - $110. Five 45-minute Workshops (virtual).

So that comes to $4,400 for kid #2.

The grand total? $14,598

And that doesn't include paper, pens, and other random supplies I need to rush out for and grab for a project. Also not included in the numbers above are the summer camps, music lessons, or sport fees that I spend. I kept these out since many parents who are not homeschoolers also incur these costs. Same with our family trips to museums or to other historical points of interest.

It's less than a secular private school in my area but much more than public school.

So there you have it. 😎

=^..^=   =^..^=   =^..^=    =^..^=    =^..^=    =^..^=    =^..^=

You can always strike up a conversation if you would like, You should try:

Yours truly, Loura 👩‍🚀