First posted February 2012
Of all the reasons for or against homeschooling, the supposed "real costs" or "missed-opportunity costs" argument has to be about the second-oldest after the socialization question, and it's just as misleading.
The Deputy Headmistress of The Common Room has posted her current thoughts on this, here and here. It's also worthwhile to go back to her 2005 post here, because the comments are so interesting. I originally posted a response to that one here. (The DHM and I have been friends a long time.)
All I can add, to all that, is this: first, you may save money by homeschooling. It depends on your lifestyle, your curriculum, how many kids you have, how much money you were making or spending before, and so on. As the DHM and others have pointed out, you won't be spending money on extra shoes, band trips, and pizza days either, and you may be saving money related to daycare or other parental work expenses. But most people don't begin to homeschool solely with the intention of saving money. As in, we can't afford to send you to public school any more, so you'll just have to stay home. There are usually other reasons involved in the decision--academic, religious, health reasons, bullying, bad teachers, whatever. So from my admittedly limited economic understanding, this is not something you can approach with a simple comparison of costs.
Second, as far as the actual cost of the actual homeschooling goes--that is, minus the arguments over whether or not the kids' shoes wear out faster, or whether you have lower medical expenses because they're not being coughed and sneezed on by thirty other kids, or how much money you won't have to spend on peanut-free granola bars and juice boxes--the only point that all homeschoolers* can agree with on this, is that we're in control of that cost. If we have money to burn and count a whole lot of things as "school", we can homeschool very expensively. If we're broke, we can scrounge and use freebies. In most cases (see the note below), we are free to decide that this year we will or won't teach a certain subject, will or won't have swimming lessons, will or won't buy a new printer.
Yes, you could put together some kind of an "average" family picture, and say that "most" homeschoolers pay a certain amount for math materials, reading books, computer stuff; or that people who spend a certain amount are more successful at homeschooling than others. But what's the point? A glance through any general homeschooling magazine, or through a week's Carnival of Homeschooling, will show such a diversity of approaches and lifestyles that such comparisons would be meaningless. Even within our own family, every year's expenses are a little different: some years we've just re-used what we had, other years we've needed to buy new materials.
Conclusion? There isn't one, except that, like the socialization question, the "costs" question is just as red a herring.
*"All homeschoolers" meaning all who live where they are free to plan their own work and/or choose their own curriculum provider, rather than being required to teach a set curriculum, buy required books, etc.
RELATED POST: Frugal Homeschooling: Let Me Count the Ways
Showing posts with label Cost of Homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cost of Homeschooling. Show all posts
Friday, February 10, 2017
Friday, October 04, 2013
Use-what-you-choose homeschooling: not as easy as it sounds. (Part One)
Looking for the rest of this series? Part Two is here. Part Three is here. Part Four is here. Part Five is here.
When our Apprentice (now in university) was small, homeschoolers depended on product descriptions in hard-copy catalogues. They grabbed up printed magazines, and books of reviews, by people who made a specialty out of knowing all there was to know about just about every known homeschooling product. (Mary Pride and Cathy Duffy, to name two.) Fifteen or twenty years ago, undertaking a project like that was actually feasible.
Around the same time, Diane Moos wrote a one-page article about frugal homeschooling, in response to a friend's request for an extremely low-budget sixth-grade curriculum. Aside from a few helpful suggestions of low-cost resources (such as Spectrum Math), Diane's basic approach was "Bible and a library card." You might update that now to "Bible and an app," but it's still good advice.
The difference, though, is that, back then, the new homeschooler could have made the most of what she had, but she wouldn't have been overwhelmed by choice, at least not on fifty dollars. For fifty dollars, you could put together something quite decent, especially using thrift shops and used curriculum. But once you had it, you had it, if that makes sense. The math book, if you didn't like it, wasn't going to transform into something else. Whatever maps and illustrations were in the science or history book, that's what you used, unless you uncovered a stack of National Geographics, or lived near a great library full of books to supplement. Still, that would probably be enough to keep most kids busy. If all else failed, as Diana Waring said, you could take them to the zoo.
However, in the past decade, technology has transformed not only the how of homeschool, but the what. The friend with the fifty-dollar budget would undoubtedly now have at least a computer, and the Internet, if not an e-reader or a phone that does tricks. And on the Internet she would find, at prices ranging from free to moderate to ridiculous, just about everything anyone could need for teaching. I don't mean only online classes, tutors, and math drills for kids, but entire libraries from textbooks to classics; full-length movies; virtual tours; music and paintings to download; forums, groups, reviews, booklists, lesson plans, scope and sequences, rubrics, printables, manipulatives. Stuff that's already online, stuff you can order online, stuff you can put online. The whole magic box. Just add crayons...but of course you can order those too, from cheapo to beeswax. If you have decent Internet service (and hopefully a printer), the educational world is yours, no matter how tiny the budget.
So what's the problem?
The key to frugal homeschooling used to be use-what-you-have. Now it's use-what-you-choose. Like shopping at one of those monster supermarkets with fifty kinds of beef jerky, you can suffer classic middle-of-the-aisle paralysis. You might end up with too much, too little, the wrong thing, You, or your students, might have no idea what to do with it. The lady you talked to at church might even be right when she wonders how homeschoolers can know what they're supposed to teach without someone standing guard over them. Oh, for the good old low-tech days...
Linked from the Carnival of Homeschooling at The Common Room.
When our Apprentice (now in university) was small, homeschoolers depended on product descriptions in hard-copy catalogues. They grabbed up printed magazines, and books of reviews, by people who made a specialty out of knowing all there was to know about just about every known homeschooling product. (Mary Pride and Cathy Duffy, to name two.) Fifteen or twenty years ago, undertaking a project like that was actually feasible.
Around the same time, Diane Moos wrote a one-page article about frugal homeschooling, in response to a friend's request for an extremely low-budget sixth-grade curriculum. Aside from a few helpful suggestions of low-cost resources (such as Spectrum Math), Diane's basic approach was "Bible and a library card." You might update that now to "Bible and an app," but it's still good advice.
The difference, though, is that, back then, the new homeschooler could have made the most of what she had, but she wouldn't have been overwhelmed by choice, at least not on fifty dollars. For fifty dollars, you could put together something quite decent, especially using thrift shops and used curriculum. But once you had it, you had it, if that makes sense. The math book, if you didn't like it, wasn't going to transform into something else. Whatever maps and illustrations were in the science or history book, that's what you used, unless you uncovered a stack of National Geographics, or lived near a great library full of books to supplement. Still, that would probably be enough to keep most kids busy. If all else failed, as Diana Waring said, you could take them to the zoo.
However, in the past decade, technology has transformed not only the how of homeschool, but the what. The friend with the fifty-dollar budget would undoubtedly now have at least a computer, and the Internet, if not an e-reader or a phone that does tricks. And on the Internet she would find, at prices ranging from free to moderate to ridiculous, just about everything anyone could need for teaching. I don't mean only online classes, tutors, and math drills for kids, but entire libraries from textbooks to classics; full-length movies; virtual tours; music and paintings to download; forums, groups, reviews, booklists, lesson plans, scope and sequences, rubrics, printables, manipulatives. Stuff that's already online, stuff you can order online, stuff you can put online. The whole magic box. Just add crayons...but of course you can order those too, from cheapo to beeswax. If you have decent Internet service (and hopefully a printer), the educational world is yours, no matter how tiny the budget.
So what's the problem?
The key to frugal homeschooling used to be use-what-you-have. Now it's use-what-you-choose. Like shopping at one of those monster supermarkets with fifty kinds of beef jerky, you can suffer classic middle-of-the-aisle paralysis. You might end up with too much, too little, the wrong thing, You, or your students, might have no idea what to do with it. The lady you talked to at church might even be right when she wonders how homeschoolers can know what they're supposed to teach without someone standing guard over them. Oh, for the good old low-tech days...
Linked from the Carnival of Homeschooling at The Common Room.
Friday, October 12, 2012
The why and how of frugal homeschooling, Part One
The why of frugal homeschooling is the easier of the two to answer. The why is that you (if you're frugal-homeschooling) have limited funds, your family is probably living on one income, or at least less than two full-time incomes, so that somebody can be home to homeschool.
Or maybe you just like a challenge.
The short answer of "how" is "don't spend much money." But since that's also a silly answer, I'll try to expand that into something more useful.
1. Use what you have.
2. Use what you have creatively.
3. This is the hardest part to explain: stay aware of your "big picture." Unless you're naturally serene about letting the unschooling chips fall where they may, you need to keep evaluating, planning, trying to keep in mind whatever educational goals or philosophy you steer by. Plus whatever family circumstances, special needs, etc. you have to deal with.
4. In other words, you can use what you have, or what comes your way, as long as it fits into your overall education plan.
In Lloyd Alexander's book Taran Wanderer, the main character Taran meets Llonio, a father who supports his family by taking hold of anything that fate throws in his net--literally. The family never knows from one day to the next what will float down the river, but they cheerfully take whatever comes, and eat it or wear it or use it. As Taran stays with Llonio's family, he appreciates their generosity and their creativity, but he also eventually realizes that their way of life is not exactly for him. He wants to do a little more purposeful seeking, instead of just catching what comes his way.
I think there's room for both, even in a frugal lifestyle and in frugal homeschooling. When I wanted to make a particular doll from a particular pattern, I kept my eyes open for certain colours and fabrics. I never did get to the outlet store that sells rug yarn, but I found something pretty close that also worked. When I crocheted monkeys last Christmas, I bought yarn in the right colours. On the other hand, I've sometimes started with a piece of fabric or a ball of yarn, and asked "what could this be? How big is it, how much of it is there, is there enough for this or that? What else would it work with? And what do we need right now, who still needs a Christmas gift?"
The same principles apply to menu planning. What's available? What's the weather like? What sort of meals does your family eat? What do you need to add to the shopping list to turn wieners and cauliflower into a meal? What's still a favourite, what's getting old, and what new things have you been wanting to try? Sometimes you go shopping intending to buy chicken thighs, because somebody gave you a new recipe, and that is what you bring home. Or you look in the freezer, and that's what's there. Or it could happen that chicken is too expensive, so you buy something else.
One useful exercise to strengthen frugal homeschool muscles is to pretend you are (or maybe you really are) in a situation where, for whatever reason, you are suddenly limited to a few books and resources. It could be a Bible, dictionary, telephone book kind of thing; or you can go with a more random choice, like the stack of books you just brought home from the library. From very loose planning ("read the book"), to more structured copywork and dictation, notebooking, dramatizations, or complete unit studies, how many ways can you think of to get the most out of this resource? If it's a map, are there ways you could add tags or markings to illustrate something you're studying? If it's a math activity book, which activities can you honestly imagine doing, and (just as important), which ones will provide the strongest learning experiences for your children?
If it's a book of poems, how will you get the most of out of it? Have any of the poems been set to music? Have any actors recorded them? (Check out anything you can find by the First Poetry Quartet.) Are there possibilities for acting them out? (Never underestimate the potential for this--I still remember the Apprentice dramatizing Blake's "A Poison Tree," including the enemy's death throes.) Can you use any of Ruth Beechick's suggestions, such as turning verse into prose? Or can you use a poem as a jumping-off point for something original? Or you can just read a poem slowly and carefully, maybe taking turns on stanzas, copying or memorizing favourite lines. It's also educational, or just entertaining, to group certain poems together, maybe in combination with art, music, or other readings. Our church music director once did this as part of a holiday program: several people of different ages read winter-themed poems by Robert Frost. Can your students plan a "poetry concert," just for your family or for others as well? You can see where I'm running away with this...but that's the point, that you can take any worthwhile book as far as you like, use it as far as you can, and it won't cost you any extra.
Linked from the Festival of Frugality #357, and from the Carnival of Homeschooling: End of the Road Edition.
Or maybe you just like a challenge.
The short answer of "how" is "don't spend much money." But since that's also a silly answer, I'll try to expand that into something more useful.
1. Use what you have.
2. Use what you have creatively.
3. This is the hardest part to explain: stay aware of your "big picture." Unless you're naturally serene about letting the unschooling chips fall where they may, you need to keep evaluating, planning, trying to keep in mind whatever educational goals or philosophy you steer by. Plus whatever family circumstances, special needs, etc. you have to deal with.
4. In other words, you can use what you have, or what comes your way, as long as it fits into your overall education plan.
In Lloyd Alexander's book Taran Wanderer, the main character Taran meets Llonio, a father who supports his family by taking hold of anything that fate throws in his net--literally. The family never knows from one day to the next what will float down the river, but they cheerfully take whatever comes, and eat it or wear it or use it. As Taran stays with Llonio's family, he appreciates their generosity and their creativity, but he also eventually realizes that their way of life is not exactly for him. He wants to do a little more purposeful seeking, instead of just catching what comes his way.
I think there's room for both, even in a frugal lifestyle and in frugal homeschooling. When I wanted to make a particular doll from a particular pattern, I kept my eyes open for certain colours and fabrics. I never did get to the outlet store that sells rug yarn, but I found something pretty close that also worked. When I crocheted monkeys last Christmas, I bought yarn in the right colours. On the other hand, I've sometimes started with a piece of fabric or a ball of yarn, and asked "what could this be? How big is it, how much of it is there, is there enough for this or that? What else would it work with? And what do we need right now, who still needs a Christmas gift?"
The same principles apply to menu planning. What's available? What's the weather like? What sort of meals does your family eat? What do you need to add to the shopping list to turn wieners and cauliflower into a meal? What's still a favourite, what's getting old, and what new things have you been wanting to try? Sometimes you go shopping intending to buy chicken thighs, because somebody gave you a new recipe, and that is what you bring home. Or you look in the freezer, and that's what's there. Or it could happen that chicken is too expensive, so you buy something else.
One useful exercise to strengthen frugal homeschool muscles is to pretend you are (or maybe you really are) in a situation where, for whatever reason, you are suddenly limited to a few books and resources. It could be a Bible, dictionary, telephone book kind of thing; or you can go with a more random choice, like the stack of books you just brought home from the library. From very loose planning ("read the book"), to more structured copywork and dictation, notebooking, dramatizations, or complete unit studies, how many ways can you think of to get the most out of this resource? If it's a map, are there ways you could add tags or markings to illustrate something you're studying? If it's a math activity book, which activities can you honestly imagine doing, and (just as important), which ones will provide the strongest learning experiences for your children?
If it's a book of poems, how will you get the most of out of it? Have any of the poems been set to music? Have any actors recorded them? (Check out anything you can find by the First Poetry Quartet.) Are there possibilities for acting them out? (Never underestimate the potential for this--I still remember the Apprentice dramatizing Blake's "A Poison Tree," including the enemy's death throes.) Can you use any of Ruth Beechick's suggestions, such as turning verse into prose? Or can you use a poem as a jumping-off point for something original? Or you can just read a poem slowly and carefully, maybe taking turns on stanzas, copying or memorizing favourite lines. It's also educational, or just entertaining, to group certain poems together, maybe in combination with art, music, or other readings. Our church music director once did this as part of a holiday program: several people of different ages read winter-themed poems by Robert Frost. Can your students plan a "poetry concert," just for your family or for others as well? You can see where I'm running away with this...but that's the point, that you can take any worthwhile book as far as you like, use it as far as you can, and it won't cost you any extra.
Linked from the Festival of Frugality #357, and from the Carnival of Homeschooling: End of the Road Edition.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Teaching them to read...and more...for very little money
Good reading for this week: Valerie's post Teach a Child to Read for $1 or Less, at Frugal Hacks.
I taught the Apprentice to read for very little money, too, when she was between three and four years old. It wasn't so much that I pushed her to learn so young, but she had been picking out alphabet letters for months already and was now demanding the rest of the reading secret. She partly taught herself; I just filled in the gaps. We used a combination of Ruth Beechick's reading booklet, a couple of library books (The Chalkboard in the Kitchen), and a yard-saled copy of Sidney Ledson's Teach Your Child to Read in 60 Days. (And we found lots of books to read together.)
With the other Squirrelings, we used more of Charlotte Mason's reading methods (computers and printers make cutting up sentences a snap); but we included Ledson's Cheerios-and-egg-carton reading game (like this one) as well, because by that time it had become a family rite of passage to play "the game."
In any case, Spalding or Cheerios, Professor Phonics or Crayons' method, we agree with Valerie: learning to read (for most children) does not have to be complicated or expensive.
I taught the Apprentice to read for very little money, too, when she was between three and four years old. It wasn't so much that I pushed her to learn so young, but she had been picking out alphabet letters for months already and was now demanding the rest of the reading secret. She partly taught herself; I just filled in the gaps. We used a combination of Ruth Beechick's reading booklet, a couple of library books (The Chalkboard in the Kitchen), and a yard-saled copy of Sidney Ledson's Teach Your Child to Read in 60 Days. (And we found lots of books to read together.)
In any case, Spalding or Cheerios, Professor Phonics or Crayons' method, we agree with Valerie: learning to read (for most children) does not have to be complicated or expensive.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
The cost of homeschooling: right up there with socialization
Of all the reasons for or against homeschooling, the supposed "real costs" or "missed-opportunity costs" argument has to be about the second-oldest after the socialization question, and it's just as misleading.
The Deputy Headmistress of The Common Room has posted her current thoughts on this, here and here. It's also worthwhile to go back to her 2005 post here, because the comments are so interesting. I originally posted a response to that one here. (The DHM and I have been friends a long time.)
All I can add, to all that, is this: first, you may save money by homeschooling. It depends on your lifestyle, your curriculum, how many kids you have, how much money you were making or spending before, and so on. As the DHM and others have pointed out, you won't be spending money on extra shoes, band trips, and pizza days either, and you may be saving money related to daycare or other parental work expenses. But most people don't begin to homeschool solely with the intention of saving money. As in, we can't afford to send you to public school any more, so you'll just have to stay home. There are usually other reasons involved in the decision--academic, religious, health reasons, bullying, bad teachers, whatever. So from my admittedly limited economic understanding, this is not something you can approach with a simple comparison of costs.
Second, as far as the actual cost of the actual homeschooling goes--that is, minus the arguments over whether or not the kids' shoes wear out faster, or whether you have lower medical expenses because they're not being coughed and sneezed on by thirty other kids, or how much money you won't have to spend on peanut-free granola bars and juice boxes--the only point that all homeschoolers* can agree with on this, is that we're in control of that cost. If we have money to burn and count a whole lot of things as "school", we can homeschool very expensively. If we're broke, we can scrounge and use freebies. In most cases (see the note below), we are free to decide that this year we will or won't teach a certain subject, will or won't have swimming lessons, will or won't buy a new printer.
Yes, you could put together some kind of an "average" family picture, and say that "most" homeschoolers pay a certain amount for math materials, reading books, computer stuff; or that people who spend a certain amount are more successful at homeschooling than others. But what's the point? A glance through any general homeschooling magazine, or through a week's Carnival of Homeschooling, will show such a diversity of approaches and lifestyles that such comparisons would be meaningless. Even within our own family, every year's expenses are a little different: some years we've just re-used what we had, other years we've needed to buy new materials.
Conclusion? There isn't one, except that, like the socialization question, the "costs" question is just as red a herring.
*"All homeschoolers" meaning all who live where they are free to plan their own work and/or choose their own curriculum provider, rather than being required to teach a set curriculum, buy required books, etc.
RELATED POST: Frugal Homeschooling: Let Me Count the Ways
The Deputy Headmistress of The Common Room has posted her current thoughts on this, here and here. It's also worthwhile to go back to her 2005 post here, because the comments are so interesting. I originally posted a response to that one here. (The DHM and I have been friends a long time.)
All I can add, to all that, is this: first, you may save money by homeschooling. It depends on your lifestyle, your curriculum, how many kids you have, how much money you were making or spending before, and so on. As the DHM and others have pointed out, you won't be spending money on extra shoes, band trips, and pizza days either, and you may be saving money related to daycare or other parental work expenses. But most people don't begin to homeschool solely with the intention of saving money. As in, we can't afford to send you to public school any more, so you'll just have to stay home. There are usually other reasons involved in the decision--academic, religious, health reasons, bullying, bad teachers, whatever. So from my admittedly limited economic understanding, this is not something you can approach with a simple comparison of costs.
Second, as far as the actual cost of the actual homeschooling goes--that is, minus the arguments over whether or not the kids' shoes wear out faster, or whether you have lower medical expenses because they're not being coughed and sneezed on by thirty other kids, or how much money you won't have to spend on peanut-free granola bars and juice boxes--the only point that all homeschoolers* can agree with on this, is that we're in control of that cost. If we have money to burn and count a whole lot of things as "school", we can homeschool very expensively. If we're broke, we can scrounge and use freebies. In most cases (see the note below), we are free to decide that this year we will or won't teach a certain subject, will or won't have swimming lessons, will or won't buy a new printer.
Yes, you could put together some kind of an "average" family picture, and say that "most" homeschoolers pay a certain amount for math materials, reading books, computer stuff; or that people who spend a certain amount are more successful at homeschooling than others. But what's the point? A glance through any general homeschooling magazine, or through a week's Carnival of Homeschooling, will show such a diversity of approaches and lifestyles that such comparisons would be meaningless. Even within our own family, every year's expenses are a little different: some years we've just re-used what we had, other years we've needed to buy new materials.
Conclusion? There isn't one, except that, like the socialization question, the "costs" question is just as red a herring.
*"All homeschoolers" meaning all who live where they are free to plan their own work and/or choose their own curriculum provider, rather than being required to teach a set curriculum, buy required books, etc.
RELATED POST: Frugal Homeschooling: Let Me Count the Ways
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