Thinking About Homeschooling Your Kids? Here Are the Expenses To Consider (2024)

Homeschooling can feel daunting, especially with the perception that you need to have loads of money set aside to do it. So is homeschooling expensive? Well, that depends. The average cost of homeschooling ranges from $500 to $2,500 per student annually, but how much families spend on homeschooling varies widely.

There are different philosophies of homeschooling and different ways of homeschooling. Besides, "expensive" can mean different things for different families. When determining how much homeschooling may cost for your family, here are a few buckets in which most of your homeschooling expenses will fall, and the costs to expect.

Curriculum

For many families, curriculum is a major piece of the overall cost of homeschooling, but how much you spend on curriculum is a personal choice. Some families prefer to purchase premade, complete curriculums while others create their own. Others do a little bit of both.

There are many different homeschool curriculums to choose from, ranging anywhere between $50 to $600 or more per child. Different curriculums and resources offer different benefits, including free digital and printable downloads. You can also look into sharing a curriculum with other homeschooling families, especially if your kids are just a year or two apart.

"A major homeschooling expense for us is curriculum," says Rachel Sheridan, a homeschooling mom of four. "We spend a couple hundred a year on it for our oldest, but it's all by choice and it all gets used again for the next child in line. In all we spend about $500 on curriculum purchased before the school year, which includes lesson plans and all books needed for all subjects," she adds.

Homeschooling Pods

Participating in learning pods or homeschooling pods can also be a major expense. While it gives homeschooled children peers to learn with and the opportunity to learn things outside of their parents' expertise, it is usually the most significant cost for families who choose this route.

Lisa Quattlebaum, a self-employed leadership consultant and homeschooling mom of one, says, "I have one child, and she does a lot of interactive activities, face-to-face and virtually. These learning pods are great because the kids get to interact with each other."

But pods can cost anywhere from $75 to $200 dollars a week. If you have multiple children participating, you sometimes get family discounts, but it ends up being as expensive as it would be to send your child to daycare or an after-school program, she adds.

Lauren Umlauf, co-founder of theDandelion Project and facilitator ofWild Seedslearning community, agrees. "Wild Seeds, the in-person learning community that my children go to, is by far our greatest expense. For this, I pay $700 per month, for two kids," Umlauf explains.

Increasingly, there has been a push to make homeschooling pods more accessible to families of all income groups. Wild Seeds learning community, for example, offers a sliding scale model, which goes down all the way to $0.

Extra Lessons

Not all parents are able to teach their children every subject or activity. They may need to get extra support for different subjects or other interests such as painting, dancing, sports, and more. Sheridan says that for her, the biggest expense is music education. "We do weekly piano and drum lessons for the kids. These end up costing about $2,500 per month."

However, this is not to say that all activities need to be as expensive. Parents on a lower budget have also been able to provide a number of activities for their children.

"We occasionally pay for online classes based on the interests that the kids have," says Hannah Mack, co-founder of the Dandelion Project, facilitator of Wild Seeds learning community, and Pennsylvania homeschool evaluator.

"We also pay for other kinds of lessons such as horseback riding lessons or karate lessons. The maximum I have spent per month on these is $300, for all three kids combined. Horseback riding, for example, was quite expensive," Mack adds.

Gear, Field Trips, and Activity Supplies

For many homeschooling families, exploring the outdoors, field trips, activities, and independent reading make up the core of their education. While books can be borrowed from the library, and some libraries even have special programs for homeschoolers to rent books for longer, other expenses can still be substantial.

Quattlebaum says, "We went to a lot of museums. So that's about $30 each. Even if she can get in for free, not every engagement is free with entry so there may be extra costs. I also spent about $50 on books, along with the ones we borrowed from the library. I pay on average between $200 to $300 per month for such activities."

Umlauf says gear (such as bicycles) and clothing are important expenses to consider, too. "Part of our learning philosophy is that the kids need to be out in the world, exploring. So gear is a big part of it," she says. "I would say that I spend maybe $250 per year, per kid, on basic all-weather clothing," Umlauf adds.

Loss of Income

For some families, homeschooling might mean that one parent needs to give up some or all of their income to support their child's education.

For Quattlebaum, a single parent, this has been the largest expense. "When I think about how I am able to homeschool her, it's because I am able to essentially support us working part-time or freelance," says Quattlebaum. "If that were not an option, I don't know if homeschooling would have been an option," she adds.

With many parents working from home, Mack suggests that giving up your job may not be necessary. "The thing is that when you're homeschooling or unschooling, you are not tied to a bell schedule. Families can be really creative with their schedule, and when work and learning happens," says Mack.

The Bottom Line

Homeschooling can be done on a budget just as well as it can be when you have a larger amount at your disposal. "We are spending more, but we could be spending less," says Mack. "We could choose not to do the in-person learning community, or the extra classes we are taking, and instead do more learning at home, together, as a family community. Homeschooling and unschooling can cost money, but it doesn't have to," concludes Mack.