Financing homeschooling 433

Financing homeschooling

When people talk about teaching their children from home in the

absence of any definite or structured curriculum, it is perhaps

natural to think that homeschooling is cheap. But this is far from

the truth. Although homeschooling does not stick to any particular

text, this is perhaps more of a bane than a boon, when it comes to

finance.

When you need to make sure that your children receives

state-of-the-art education so that they can compete with regular

school goers, expenses will naturally mount. The actual cost of

educating a child at home is surprisingly high. Up-to-date

textbooks, course materials, a library, computing equipment,

lighting, specially designed furniture all cost money. In this

case, the cost may be slightly lesser when it comes to

homeschooling the second child. Add to this any additional tuition

cost for tutors who come to teach subjects that cannot be handled

by parents, like higher-level math or science. The total cost can

be a bit mind boggling.

If you take another important factor into consideration,

homeschooling costs may effective triple. The need for having one

of the parents tied to the house and fully dedicated to providing

education deprives the family of a second earning member. The

average homeschooling teacher is usually a lady with a college

degree. This means that she can easily bring home a pay of $35,000

or more. It is also interesting to note that most families that

have more than 2 children do not opt for homeschooling at all.

But, there are those who have been successful in carrying out

homeschooling at low rates. This is dependent on the size of the

family, the support group, the type of materials used and the

availability of the material. When successive children can reuse

the materials, cost goes down. Much of the course material can be

got from vendors of homeschooling materials. A membership in a

public library, theatre, concerts, ballets and other cultural

events also help in cutting costs. Sometimes, it is even possible

to barter expertise. For instance, the mother of an 8-year old

gives dancing classes, and her daughter receives drawing classes

for free. Support groups allow you to divide the cost of field

trips, science projects and fairs.

Whatever the cost, advocates of homeschooling say that the

benefits far outweigh these considerations. When you are able to

decide what knowledge your child receives and when he or she

should be taught and to what extent, it gives you a lot of freedom

and a lot of power. Both the children as well as the parents

benefit from this mutually enriching experience.

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