One of the things I’m really conscious of since embarking on home education is that it is definitely something that is only possible due to a certain amount of privilege.
There is the privilege of course of being in a position to be home with your child (be it full-time or part-time) and not instead in full-time work. Often this is due to having a partner who is working or having an occupation that allows for working from home.
I know when Wilf was a baby it actually made less financial sense for me to return to work (with childcare costs). However, it’s often the case for most people that once kids are school age school allows them childcare to be able to get back to work. I know lots of people that love the idea of home ed but also finally have the opportunity to not have to pay for childcare and the chance to get back to work so it’s definitely not an option for the majority.
On top of that, there is the expense of paying for resources, clubs, activities, or days out. I thought it might be interesting to add up how much the homeschool costs on average we are spending each month (albeit we have only been doing home ed for a couple of months so far).
Homeschooling in the UK
It’s also worth noting whilst I’m at it that this isn’t the case for home education in all countries, many parents actually get given resources and money towards the cost of homeschooling. Our government gives a certain amount per child to schools. Whilst home education is a choice it does seem unfair that there isn’t any allowance for help for those not choosing education at school. That’s not to say I think they should give schools less (of course!) and more that the resources schools have are costly as are the resources you might need for home. There are countries that help with homeschool costs but I doubt we will see it in this country any time soon.
So how much does Homeschool cost for us?
This is a little tricky to work out our homeschool cost because a few of the classes he does he actually also did whilst at school (piano or swimming for example). I’ll add the ones he still does in this post anyway but I thought it was worth noting. The other thing thats tricky to equate is things like pens, pencils and baking ingredients etc. I’ve chosen to add these as they are things he would be using if he was still at school too.
Forest School
Wilf attends a once a week forest school which thankfully is still able to run as it is classed in the same way as schools. It runs from 10-2 and has a max of 12 children that sign up for a term. This means that he is seeing the same children for at least one day a week which I love. It also ensures he is getting proper outdoor time and play at least once a week. The age group Wilf is in goes from 5-10 with a good mix of ages which is great. We may move this up to two days a week in the future but it would be depending on how well we budget other aspects of our lives.
Cost – £25 a session = £100 a month
Piano Lessons
Like I said above he did also have these whilst he was at school but I definitely feel like he is getting more out of them now he isn’t so tired! I think home ed has made us feel like these lessons are even more valuable, he gets more time to practise or just play around and create his own music during the day as well
£20 a session = £80 a month
Online classes
We recently started online classes with Bean Learning. I would really recommend it for both home-educated kids and school kids. It’s been great during the lockdown, especially as a lot of the children that attend also go to the forest school. The numbers are capped at 8 but are often fewer which I think is really helpful. Wilf does a mixture of classes here from Lego Club to Craft Club, Drama, and Story Telling. The prices range from £5 to £10.
Number of classes we have been taking amounts to around £30 per month
Learning apps and subscriptions
Whilst I know that many people don’t use apps like these we have found them hugely helpful to help encourage subjects like maths and english. We use Reading Eggs for English and Doodle Maths for Maths. We also have a yearly home ed subscription to Twinkle which I would also highly recommend. We use Twinkl for both Wilf and Mabli although Mabli is currently in school.
Twinkl per month £8
Doodle Maths £5.99
Reading Eggs £6.99
= £21
Educational books / activity books
This is a tricky homeschool cost to work out too as we tend to pick up bits and bobs from car boots and charity shops. Things like Horrible History books which he would have bought anyway etc I probably wont add those kind of things in this working out. what I will do is add up any work book of specific learning books.
Some of our favourite so far are :
The wizards workshop
Collins Easy Learning
Sticker History
National Geo Kids (the magazine is great too)
Anorak Magazine
Scoop Magazine
We probably add up to around £30 a month on books and magazines
Learning through board games
Another resource we use a lot is board games or card games. For instance, Wilf decided he was really interested in collecting leaves from all sorts of different plants. He used his flower press and botanical book and then we picked up House of Plants. I feel like there is so much learning to be taken from games like these.
I would say we probably spend around £30 a month on educational games.
Additional educational expenses
I’m not really sure how to add these up as we have taken a few day trips but equally, these are things we would have done regardless albeit on a weekend. I think in the future when the lockdown is over we will be more likely to visit places such as the Roman Baths etc which will have an entrance fee.
We recently took a trip to Plymouth to learn about the Mayflower of which the train cost £75 and food expenses came to £50
We’ve also been picking up sets here and there as activities. One of the best places for these are Aldi and also Pound Shop. We have picked up some great science sets like these ones or art and craft kits. Baker Ross is also great for craft kits. We would have bought these anyway but I’ll add them to the tally too.
I imagine we spend around £20 each month
Round up of how much homeschooling in the UK costs us each month
So rounding up I would say we spend around £375 a month on resources, clubs, days out, and activities. When you think of that adding up to around £4,500 ish a year. Still a lot cheaper than a private education but definitely not something that many can add to their finances and a definite privilege to do so. It’s also worth mentioning (as I’m sure there are some home educators who will be doing things differently) that this is just our experience of we are doing things so far. It’s not a hard and fast calculation of how much it HAS to cost by any means. For example, I’m sure lots don’t do a forest school or may not spend anything on educational subscriptions. There are also probably a lot of people who spend a lot more too!
I think other than maybe adding an additional forest school day and language class I don’t see these numbers changing much for us. That being said I think it might be useful to do another one of these when we are 6 months into it too!
I hope this post about homeschooling in the UK has been interesting or useful to anyone. Let me know if you are home-educating and if the above resonates with you, or even if you really don’t agree!
Find more posts about our homeschool journey :
Why we decided to Home School
Home Education & Socialisation
Home Learning in Lockdown
Homeschooling curriculums in the UK
One Response
This is so interesting and useful. Sounds like a lovely varied amount of activities and projects which must be so enriching for Wilf. Mine have started getting in to reading The Week Junior over the last year which is a really good round up of world events and gets them all talking. Will have a look at Bean Learning, we’ve tried Outschool which is mainly American but my daughter loves their classes – the cost does add up though so she only does a couple in the holidays.