Educating your child yourself can save money or cost you. Materials alone are very expensive. But here are some non-educational costs when homeschooling you might not think of.
Keeping Your Home Pest Free
Since you are teaching your kids in your own home, you are in charge of the whole building. This includes things like safety, like fire alarms, and pests. Pests are a bother at any time of the year. One of the most common is termites. When you homeschool, you have to deal with termite control. If you don’t, the time it takes to get rid of the pests will take away from your kids’ time to learn. And that will mean more work for you in the long run as you struggle to catch up.
Extra Costs when Homeschooling Includes Air Quality
Most homes don’t pay enough attention to the air quality. But if you are homeschooling, it is very important that your home has a lot of clean, fresh air. Air that is clean and full of oxygen is important for learning well. But it also helps treat common health problems in children, like asthma and allergies. Schools have enough money to buy HVAC systems and pay for their upkeep. But they can be expensive to install and keep up on your own dime and time.
Increased Gas and Electricity Use
Most people who are new to homeschooling don’t realize how much gas and electricity you use when you are at home all day. You don’t need to use energy at home when you’re at work. But you can’t think that kids will learn in a cold place. In fact, it’s much harder for kids to learn when they are too cold. So you need to think about whether you can afford the extra energy costs, which are often twice as much as what you would spend if you were at work.
Official Examinations and Testing
Exams and tests are part and parcel of every curriculum, from elementary and primary school right up to doing a master’s degree. Tests are typically administered by a governing body of some kind since they need to be standardized. However, they can cost quite a bit of money:
- Tests that are usually paid for by schools must be paid for by you.
- There can be a lot of tests in each term, such as midterms.
- Intense testing, such as SATs, is more expensive than standard term tests.
Tests can become expensive overall. However, it’s important to note that your children, as homeschooled kids, aren’t required to take official tests in other countries. But it is common for homeschooled children to take them anyway to keep up with governmental education.
Extra Food and Drink
School food isn’t always free. But it depends on where you live and what else is going on in your life. And for some people, a free meal for kids at school might be the only good meal they get all day. For example, one study in the UK found that almost 2 million children depend on their free school meal. But if you homeschool your kids, you have to make sure they eat every meal. Most of the time, there isn’t any extra help available to make up for this added expense.
Activities are Extra Costs when Homeschooling
Homeschooling isn’t only about education. Like school, there need to be some extra activities to alleviate some of the tension for your kids. But being a homeschooler, you must pay for everything yourself. For example, schools can get discounts when kids go on field trips. But as a private citizen, these won’t be available to you. This means you will have to pay full price for things like adventure parks, theme parks, and sports activities. So keep an eye out for coupons.
Reduced Income from Less Work
Lastly, you may not think about how much time and work it takes to teach a child at home. Yes, because they won’t have to travel, you will save time. And you will save some money on travel too. But you can’t work full-time and teach your own child at the same time. It’s not possible because you need at least six hours of school every day. So, you will have to cut back on the number of hours you work, which will add to the real cost of teaching your own kids at home.
Summary
Materials are expensive. But there are non-educational costs when homeschooling your kids. These include pest control, an increase in energy use, and having less time to earn an income.
