Nothing. Speak to your local school district for book borrowing privileges.
Here are more opinions and answers from other WikiAnswers contributors:
- If cost is no object, it is easy to spend around $1400 per child per year. I pick that particular figure because in Alaska, we can sign our kids up with charter schools which give us State funding for materials we use at home. Since we can't use the money for religious materials, most folks spend a big part of that on lessons (swimming lessons, in our case) and equipment such as microscopes. If you are spending your own money, you could cover the basics far more cheaply. You could get most of the books you use from the library, and get the equipment second-hand. You don't have to buy curricula, if you're comfortable with making your own schedules and plans. I suspect that if you were a dedicated scrounger, you could do everything you wanted on about the same budget that most folks require to equip their kids for the warehouse schools: perhaps $200 per kid per year. If you were flat broke, I'm sure that you could do it on around $20 per month for the family, though that would obviously involve scrimping and spending far too much time at the library.
- I homeschool my children and people ask me this question often. It is hard to give a definite answer. You can spend a lot or only a little. It is totally up to you. You can buy expensive pre-packaged curriculum. Or you can design your own and save a lot of money. You can buy used textbooks at educational/homeschooling stores. You can buy them at yard sales. You can pay $15 a month for Internet service and get a WEALTH of information there. There are SO MANY web sites that have free worksheets, games, and all sorts of educational things. You can take advantage of your local public library for many resources such as books, CD-Roms, videos, DVDs, etc. There are many free places to go for fun field trips. It's really all up to you to decide how much you want to spend!
- I am homeschooled, and it costs about $3,000 a year but this includes lessons that would normally not be included in school such as horseback riding (an excellent form of exercise), and Irish Dance (another great form of exercise -- especially for the legs). I do distance courses from JHU CTY (Center for Talented Youth) and this is the bulk of that figure.
- I homeschool my kids for the high school years and it only cost $599.00. It ends up being a really nice program they ship all your books out to you and they are yours to keep.
- In most cases there are 'hidden' costs. For example, a parent who would otherwise earn an income may stay at home in order to homeschool the children and earn nothing or very little. Such costs should be included in any rigorous assessment of the real cost.
- It depends on how many children you're homeschooling. You may be able to get the books needed from the public system cheaper that directly from the state. You will most likely want to take them on excursions outside the home for learning experiences, so join the library, free, and a museum for family, usually 50/60 dollars. See if there are any science centers in your state and they may be on the reciprocal list for the museum and you'll either get in free or at a greatly reduced price. You would have meals in any event so that's really not a consideration unless you eat out. Call the Department of Education in your state or contact the Administration office of your public school and they can give you more info and help.
- NORMALLY IT IS £10 TO £100 IN ENGLAND/LONDON.
I am homeschooled. I go to Online high-school and it is completely free, there is also another k-12 program that is completely free. The program i am on is called advanced academics.