I’M A SUCKER
for a bad press release. And this one is really bad:
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.
True. And even more interesting is that most families with 2 or fewer children do not opt for homeschooling. Hell! Nobody opts for homeschooling. What am I even doing here?
4 Responses to “I’M A SUCKER”
 Comment by Sarah August 14th, 2006 at 8:32 am |
You can compete very effectively with public school students with the contents of the Project Gutenberg database. If you insist on downloading or printing out the whole thing you’ll have to put out some cash, but otherwise, you can do your reading for free at the library, which is conveniently empty during school hours. I’m not entirely certain where they’re coming from on any of this. It’s a very odd article, sounds like it wasn’t written by a homeschooler so much as the operator of an online charter school. An especially clueless operator of an online charter school, at that. |
 Comment by Cindy B. August 14th, 2006 at 8:41 am |
Andrea, you beat me to it! Along with the extra lighting required, I’m looking at a full remodel when my son turns 6 and I submit my Declaration of Intent! And as far as families with more than one child, I’m new to the homeschooling community and probably don’t know nearly as many hs’ers as most of the people who read this blog, but most of the families I do know not only have more than one, they usually have 3 or more. Sometimes 5 or 6! Out of touch, this guy. |
 Comment by Jill August 14th, 2006 at 9:04 am |
It is amazing how some folks can’t think outside the box at all! I have been working part time for a year now, and I picked up additional tech writing work from home about 5 months ago, so I earn close to $45K and still am able to homeschool my daughter, because I make the schedule conform to my needs. Yeah, it is not easy, but it is worth it to us! Also, no special furniture needed, although I would really love to have a chemistry lab addied to my house 🙂 but that is more because my DH keeps complaining about his fear of our science projects mixing with his dinner 🙂 And we are an odditiy in the HS community – only one child ! |
 Comment by Christine G August 14th, 2006 at 10:25 am |
I would like to thank him for letting me know that I am doing it all wrong so we can get enrolled in the local ps ASAP – our kids must be terribly behind. I mean, no expensive curriculum, no special furniture, no tutors, too many kids…I was supposed to have special lighting? Nobody told me! |