How much does it cost to homeschool?

The average cost of homeschooling is very hard to pin down because every family does homeschool a little differently. Let’s look at two examples from a family of two (children are grade 1 and JK) who lives in Ontario.

Family #1 meets weekly with two other families as a co-op that includes science experiments, outdoor soccer, and a cooking class. The weekly routine includes an afternoon at the conservation area and a trip to the local library for a storytime and to pick up 20-30 new books to read out loud at home. Most of the learning is done through discussions and reading history and science from “living” textbooks that were borrowed from a friend with activities and experiments that use typical household supplies. They use mostly Khan Academy and apps/games for math as they focus on math facts for the older child.

Family #2 meets weekly with a large co-op with registration fees of $15 per week. The weekly routine includes sports events at the YMCA and purchasing one new book that matches their faith. (They are trying to build their personal library with books that are hard to find at the local public library.) Two to three times a month they go on a field trip to a museum, tour, attraction, or special event. The children both have private music lessons. The family loves Lego. So, this year they purchased a Lego education kit. They use a purchased online curriculum for math with automatic grading. Plus, one child has a tutor for English.

Both families have lots of learning experiences, but they are obviously working with two different budgets. 

Some elementary history and science curriculum is specifically designed so that you can use it with multiple ages at the same time, thus saving the family money. Generally, as children get older, parents discover their child’s method of learning, interest, and skills, and as a result, it becomes harder to group children together with the same curriculum. There are many options available for older children that can be more expensive, including online high school classes. Some people would suggest the average cost of home education is between $300 and $500 CDN annually ($30-$50 per month over 10 months), but this is by no means the minimum or maximum.