budget for homeschool?

Question:
What's a typical budget for homeschooling? Or, what are the budgets of some people here?

I don't want too many personal details, just someting like this: * Roughly how much money (per child per year) is spent on books and related curriculum? * Roughly how much money (per child per year) is spent on other things, such as: science equipment, sports equipment, music lessons, software, etc?

Answer:
- Is that for Mississippi river boat hsers or non-Mississippi river boat hsers? Sorry, couldn't resist. But while I'm on the topic, I disagree with those who say, "Aack, run away!! It's a DangerousActivity{TM}!!" If there are people who do boat the Mississippi (safely), I believe that it must be a skill that is acquirable by intelligent persistence.

- Wow, I don't know. I just buy things as I need them. I just trust God to supply the money, and if he doesn't then it can wait. I do plan for HSLDA dues, local group dues, and some basic supplies like paper and stuff at the beginning of each school year; usually $200 or so. I also budget another $300-$500 for the yearly conference, for conference costs and things I buy from the booths. Other things I try to spread out the purchases over the course of the year. Of course, my kids are still quite young and don't need much right now, however I'm spending lots on putting together a library of classic books for all of us, plus all the best homeschooling and education books for myself. Right now our only major expenses are swimming lessons (we've spent around $300 to keep all 3 kids in daily lessons for the whole summer) and field trips; over the course of the year we've spent around $200 on various trips.

- It's a great question Ted. Unfortunately the answers will vary widely by family. I've known people who could home school 4 kids on $100 for the whole year. Obviously they didn't do a lot of extras like art or field trips or music lessons on that budget. And then there's people like me who have spent over $1000 a year for 2 children not including piano lessons or dance classes. There are the yearly expenses of curriculum, which will of course vary based on what curriculum you are using. Our basics for each child for the year include: EASY GRAMMAR (approx. $20-25 per child) DAILY GRAMS (approx. $20-25 per child) MATH-U-SEE (Approx. $20 teacher manual, $15 for each child student text, $40 instruction video, plus the one time purchase of manipulatives for $110.00) SPELLING POWER (1 time purchase of $50 +$30 for the optional activity cards - can be used with multiple children and goes up through college level spelling) And then we use a wide variety of other books, workbooks, resources, science supplies, art supplies, plus field trips and outings ... couldn't even guess what we spend on all of that. Piano lessons are about $90 a month per child. Dance classes are about $40 an hour. I'd say that a home school budget is mostly related to how much money one has available to spend and the academic needs of the children in that particular home. At any rate, I'm sure there are as many different answers as there are people who home school.

- Well, one would have to begin with defining what is a part of hs'ing, and what is not. Not nearly as easy as it sounds - for example: Back when I had a deer lease, PART of that not only could, but should, be included as a hs expense. After all, the girls had massive amounts of field trips, archaeology (mostly fossil or arrowhead hunting), and mammalian biology lessons. How much of the $1600/year should I have devoted to hs'ing budget vs how much to my recreational budget?