By way of consoling myself as regards the expense of home education, I regularly compare costs with private schooling. A recent estimate from Charles Moore of the Spectator set the price of putting a child through private school at approximately £250k, so there aren't too many worries there.
However we do have to concede the case with regard to state schooling, with current parental expenditure estimated at £14,000 for a school-life. But of course when you take value for your money into account, home education wins hands down.
Not really comparing like with like though, are you.
ReplyDeleteAttending a school doesn't mean that a child is necessarily receiving an education there. :-)
When talking about the expense of home education. The cost is whatever the parent chooses it to be, or are you counting the loss of income because one parent stays at home? Even with a child in school, one parent will sometimes stay at home or do the sort of work that a parent who home educates could fit in.
ReplyDeleteFrom our perspective, it is a matter of loss of income from not working. Though I do realise that many families actually do wangle this very well and both home educating parents do end up working and not losing out on income it is just that we haven't sorted this out yet!
ReplyDeleteNot being too hard on self, as Dd still very young and I did find that both my children as infants unquestionably preferred me to be there all the time.
I'm so glad of homeschooling to be able to a) stay home and not work in an office and b) justify the cost of books I'd be purchasing anyway lol.
ReplyDeleteAnd when I pick a private school to compare, I usually pick one in New York City, where I used to live. There isn't enough wall space in our house to by enough books and other fun things to come near the cost of a year's tuition there...