Playing the "Find the Curriculum" Game

When you homeschool, invariably people who don't homeschool or have never thought about it are surprised when you talk about the costs.

For example, yesterday at work, my wife's co-workers were surprised to hear that we had to buy school supplies.  What?! School supplies?  They're not going to school, though, right?

Wrong.  School work still happens, even if it's at the kitchen table.

School happening. At the kitchen table.

And, they need school supplies too.  Although, I can't imagine having to buy a brand new backpack and lunchbox and thermos/water bottle for them in addition to the supplies we got a couple of nights ago.  We just got the basics, and it's still about $50.00 at Target.

(But, in an effort to promote organization this year, we did get them each a $6 Trapper Keeper... Remember those?  Yes, they are still out there.)

And on top of the supplies, we have to actually buy their curriculum!  Workbooks, Reading books, Teacher's editions, you name it.

School happening. Outside on the picnic table. Needing organization.

So, yesterday afternoon we trekked down to a small town about 45 minutes away to pick up a great deal - $75 for almost all of Katie's 4th grade materials.  We still have to get a few consumable workbooks and some art and music resources to go along with them, but it was a great deal, and we're thankful.

As for the 2nd grader, we found a lot of her books used online from various sources, and so this year's not going to be as expensive as we initially thought.  Probably about $400 total, which is still less than the $800+ that it would have been if we had bought new stuff.

So, even though our kids aren't going to a "traditional" school, the costs are still there.