Question for Home Schooling Kids

[dfrecore]

With a parent staying home, you're going to lose some income. I haven't worked outside of the home for 15 years, those are years when I could have been earning a good living, but chose to stay home instead.

From what I've seen in our nearby elementary schools, there is almost no cost to anything; everything is provided for you except some paper and pencils and crayons. We have definitely spent plenty of money homeschooling our 2 kids, but I didn't do anything outrageous. I think we spend less than $600/year on curriculum when they were younger, and now it's closer to $1200-$1500/kid as they get older, especially online classes. But, many of our things I bought used, and we definitely used the same textbooks and passed them down; so you might have to buy 2 $20 workbooks to go with the expensive $65 textbook - but then you can also resell your textbook when you're done. Some other things that were more expensive were plays, camps, and things like science materials for the labs, which could cost $200+. But those were all totally worth it. I'd rather have some banged up textbooks and spend my money on science labs, but that's me.

When I look at the cost of sending my kids to the local private schools, the amount spent on curriculum is a LOT less than the private school tuition - a LOT less. Maybe 10%-15% of the cost.

It's just a matter of deciding what you want to do.

As for how, there are so many options, it's crazy. You have to spend time researching, because every family is different and does things differently. We did not use any online courses when my kids were little, and my daughter still doesn't like it (almost 14 and will be starting high school). My son gets a little bored, but if I can find something he likes, he's ok. But at the age your kids are, it was much easier to just teach them myself, since I would have had to sit with them and make sure they were paying attention anyway. Plus we weren't all about that much screen time for them.

I advise that you go check out a homeschool conference if you can find one nearby this summer. There is so much curriculum available, it's ridiculous. You can also check out Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind, about the classical method of education, or A Thomas Jefferson Education, or Charlotte Mason (good for your little guys' ages). There are way more out there than I could tell you about, but a homeschool conference is the best way to get to touch and feel a gazillion different curriculums and see for yourself what is out there.

I will say that you don't have to go crazy with curriculum for a 5-yo. You can start with a simple math curriculum to teach basics, a phonics program to teach them to read, and maybe a science book like Mudpies to Magnets, and spend a lot more time doing creative things like art and music and nature and things like that. I can't tell you how much "math" time we spent playing "store" where I put price tags on food and then they had to use real coins to buy stuff from me. They wanted to do it every day for like 6 months. We spent about a million hours listening to books on tape (from the library, so free). I read until I was hoarse every day. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen learning to cook and bake (now THAT is a skill that has paid off in dividends!). We did a lot of training on how to do different chores (yes, your 4-yo can learn to clean a toilet and do a pretty good job!). We spent time outside, playing, planting things, jumping on the trampoline to get the wiggles out, etc. Lots more time doing all of those things than sitting at the table doing "schoolwork".

Good luck! It's a fun journey. I wouldn't have traded this time with my kids for the world. Ok, well, sometimes I would have traded them to someone if they'd asked, but only sometimes.