Which parents homeschool their kids?

Question

Is it mostly rich families? Or is it, parents whom have reached a comfortable financial situation?? Or is it the other way, homeschool to save money? Or what kinds of people do that?

I got into a debate with my brother about homeschool, and he insists that rich people homeschool more rather than broke people. Anyone care to share opinions? THANKS, AND PLEASE BE DECENT.

Answer 1

I'm on a group on yahoo for those of us that homeschool our special needs kids, and there's over 700 people. Most are low to middle income. It depends on how you homeschool. You can do it fairly cheap by making your own curriculum (like I do) or by going through a state run charter where all materials are given to you. If you purchase curriculum it gets pretty expensive, but still, my sister makes less money than I do and she buys curriculum. You just budget what is important to you, as with anything else. If there's a will, there's a way! Most of us homeschool because of crappy schools, to be honest. My neighbor is finally homeschooling two of her kids, after fighting to get an IEP for one of them and it just being an endless uphill battle that her son was losing out on. He's doing wonderfully now. She is going through a free, online school, and the curriculum is MUCH better than what his school was using. The reasons why we homeschool are so varied, it would be a long post for me to answer what kinds of people do it. Mostly though for me, it's because of the poor quality of education and overcrowding in the schools, and because my son is autistic. Religion is usually the other big reason, which is partially my reason, too, but not as much as the first two.

Answer 2

Last I checked we're broke!! My budget for HS is $40 a month and I don't use that much. We use the ACE Program for everything except Math (Math-u-see)  and Science (Apologia given to us). It is a variety of people who home school most with a stay at home parent others with parents that work at least part time (like me). Some are well off others are on food stamps and most are in between. Some are able to home school for free (I haven't figured that out completely) others spend a thousand a year or more. It can get more expensive the more children you have especially if they are in different age groups and way different grades. My sister for example has 5 kids all home schooled they are 16, 11, 9, 7, and 5. The 11 and 9 year old use the same curriculum they 16 and 7 year old use different one than the any one else and the 5 yo is just starting Kindergarten. There is 1 difference in the 11 and 9 yo stuff and that is Math one uses Saxon the other uses Singapore.

Answer 3

what in the world!? anyone can homeschool!!!!! It has nothing to do with financial standing in society. There are so many different options though for different financial standings. He might of thought that b/c every he knew who hs was wealthy...

Answer 4

Like piglet said: Most homeschool families make considerable sacrifices in order to homeschool their children.

Even those one would consider "rich" are sacrificing an income.

One might look at the term "rich" from a different perspective. I consider my family to be rich - not so much in financial terms - but in quality of family life, church life, community involvement and such.  Homeschooling families can "afford" many non-monetary things that 2 income families often cannot.

From where I stand, I am the richest man in the world!

Answer 5

lol! Wow...no way. I've been home schooled all my life. And my family is FAR from rich. And barely a 'comfortable financial situation'. It actually saves money in a way. It's more than public school...but worth it because of the education. But it is yet far less than private school. Again, much better education.

Answer 6

I can give you a pretty reliable picture of the home school community we have in our city/county.

First of all they come from all walks of life, education, and income levels.

More than 80% of them live on one income, and have an average of 4 to 5 children, and up.

These families are skilled laborers, regular laborers (working for major retailers/companies), small business owners, entrepineurs, as well as proffesionals/teachers.

Home school families make this choice for many reasons, and therefore adjust our priorities to be able to provide not only the best education for our children, but also to give them the best environment, and opportunities to pursue their interests.

Home schooling is much more about our families than anything else, and the myth of needing two incomes is just that a "myth".

The time with our children, and the great relationships that are formed between parents, and siblings, as well as being able to raise them with our own values is PRICELESS.

Answer 7

All of the homeschoolers I know are on the lower to middle income ladder (18K to 45K/yr). We now have a household gross income of about 32K, but merely ten years ago we were homeschooling on just $18K.

Answer 8

I believe it is true that the $$ people do the homeschooling for these reasons:

1. They can afford the books & other supplies that have to be paid out of pocket.

2. They can afford to have one parent at home (not working) to do this

Poorer people have to work to make a living and must rely on the public schools for an education for their kids. They don't have the time flexibility to home-school, as they are usually tired, most may be from single parent homes, and if you're working what will you do with a child that is home all day, if you're not there?

It's a snooty concept that the rich can afford tutors for upper grade subjects like calculus, the sciences etc. The elementary years are pretty easy to teach. And then the n'hood that has a whole bunch of home-schooled kids get together for field trips at THEIR expense, whereas public school kids, the school board pays for that.

Answer 9

I think you'll find it spread across the spectrum, from very poor to wealthy, however, mostly middleclass people would choose to homeschool. In our homeschool group, there is a very rich family, and there is also a family that spent some months homeless due to being laid off. They still chose to homeschool because they believed that it would be better for the kids regardless of income. We are in the middle ourselves, but we have chosen to forego some of the ridiculous things that society says is important, we have one vehicle, dh walks to work. We don't travel to Disneyland or Jamaica to make ourselves feel important (altho more power to those who can afford it without using a credit card), we don't buy lots of stuff to fill up our house, or new furniture or new cars. We don't eat more than two or three times a month, we don't rent movies (we get them from the library for free). the list goes on...we live in a comfortable financial situation due to the choices we make, to live within our means and enjoy the time we have with our children, homeschooling.

A quote from hslda:

The 1998 study by Dr. Rudner of 20,760 students, found that eighth grade students whose parents spend $199 or less on their home education score, on the average, in the 80th percentile. Eighth grade students whose parents spend $400 to $599 on their home education also score on the average, in the 80th percentile! Once the parents spend over $600, the students do slightly better, scoring in the 83rd percentile.

The message is loud and clear. More money does not mean a better education

unquote

Answer 10

Tell your brother he's wrong. I've met people of all walks of life who homeschool. Frequently families have to choose between more money with two incomes, or less money with one income and a stay at home parent. We homeschool. My family is not rich, by any stretch of the imagination.

Answer 11

When we started homeschooling we were not only in low income territory but below the poverty line. We're just climbing out of low income territory now. I know a single mom on social assistance who homeschools and plenty of other people that are officially poor or low income that do as well.

I find people who assume homeschoolers are wealthy simply dopn't know much about homeschooling. Frankly, I'm not sure how we would have afforded it had we decided to send the kids to school.

Answer 12

Sorry, I am not rich either matter a fact I work 2 jobs and

homeschool my 10th grader. I work 4 am. to 9 am.

Then go to my second job with my son doing his school work

while I'm at work. And he is doing great in school.

Answer 13

You're right and he's wrong.  LOL

Homeschoolers come from all walks of life.  Most HSers I know are lower to middle income.  The majority of HSers I've met are couples with one spouse working, though I know a number of single parents who HS their child/ren and hold down full-time jobs (several are in the Nursing field).  With the many approaches and methods to Home Education, there are so many options out there and it can be pricey or not pricey at all.  It all depends on what the Homeschoolers are looking for in educational resources and how they feel it's best to help their child/ren learn.

My husband and I HS our four children.  We are not "high income".  I was HS'd for a short time and it was only my Mother, working from home, Homeschooling us, and definitely not a high income.  :o)

Answer 14

Not necessarily rich people, but families that can live on one income while the other parent stays home and homeschools.

Answer 15

We are poor people.  Husband and I both chose lower paying, lower stress jobs so that we could enjoy our lives.  We live in modest home that is paid for but needs lots of repairs.  

We spend much time together with our 'student'.  We are not wealthy in possessions but feel very wealthy in non-material ways.

Answer 16

I don't think it has something to do with financial status , there are rich people I know who do it and poor people like me .

It just so happen all of us thought that it was an option for us and after doing it eventually realized that it is the best for our children.

My family have had problems with traditional schools in issues of Quality Education, Educators credentials, Health and Safety.

The need of doing it also arises due to my husband's job assignments and as the time goes by we see all the benefits of Home school.

I hope these information helps you.

Answer 17

we are not rich but I have been a stay at home mom home schooling my children for years

http://www.homeschoolinganswers.info

Answer 18

We're a middle class family, and we homeschool. My mom can afford most of the textbooks i need, and the ones that are too expensive we either borrow or get used, or we use free resources like libraries, museums, internet, videos, etc.

Answer 19

Very few of the families I know that homeschool are rich.  Most of us make a sacrifice to be able to homeschool.  We drive older vehicles, in fact a lot of the families have one vehicle, we don't live in new homes, etc.

Some moms work part time on weekends or evenings when dad is home to look after the kids.    



In our family we are self-employed and I do all the accounting from home.  I work mainly evenings and weekends.   My husband works 5-7 days a week in order to maket this work.

A friend of mine is a teacher and she subs on Fridays to help pay the bills. Her husband works 6 days a week.

Homeschooling doesn't have to be expensive.  Most just decide that they don't need brand new cars, the latest gadgets, they shop at Walmart instead of boutiques for clothing, etc.  

Yes there are some that are rich.  Just like in public school you get every socio-economic group there is.

Answer 20

I can't say I know many rich homeschooling families. I know several who scrape by--even with the mom working some part-time (sometimes more) hours.

Homeschooling doesn't save you money really. You are home more, which means more use of electricity, water, etc. Homeschoolers tend to be in more activities, which you have to pay for. The texts aren't provided for if you're doing "pure" homeschooling.

Rich people would probably be more likely to send their kids to private schools than to homeschool them.

Answer 21

LOL  I wish homeschooling meant that I was rich!

My husband does not get paid that much, and I work two days a week cleaning houses to help with bills.  For a family of five, we actually would qualify for food stamps on our income, but we don't want the government with their nose in our affairs so we haven't applied.

We budget very tightly.  We eat a lot of beans, lentils and rice.  We don't drive unless its necessary.  We heat our home with a pellet stove that was trash at one time, but we fixed it up and installed it.

We sacrifice a lot to homeschool, but we do it gladly because its best for our kids.

Recently our house became paid for, but that was only because we inherited a large share of it from my husbands Grandma.  (We had to pay one relative his "share" of the house she always said she was leaving my husband, because she didn't put it down on paper.)  For years before this we struggled every month to pay rent.  

We would certainly be "richer" monetarily if I went to work full time... but I'd rather be rich in my family relationships than in money.

EDIT...........EDIT................EDI...

Homeschool is cheaper than private school.  The rich often send their kids to private school.

Also, my home is over 60 years old, and needs some fixing up!