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As friends have started to spend £100’s on school uniforms it got me thinking about the real cost of homeschooling UK. Is it costing me more? Is home education actually cheaper than school? How much does homeschooling cost in the UK?

Of course, the cost of homeschooling was not even part of the reason we decided to homeschool. But I am really staggered with the savings.

If you are seriously considering homeschooling check out my post on how to start homeschooling in the UK that will really help.

How Much Does Homeschooling Cost UK?

Zero. That’s right, it doesn’t have to cost you anything.

There are so many free home education resources you can use you don’t have to spend anything. Now, we spend more than this which I will detail below. But….

YOU DON’T HAVE TO SPEND ANYTHING TO HOME EDUCATE YOUR CHILD.

How to Homeschool Free

Now, remember what I said about homeschooling free? It’s true. There are so many free resources you can use, if you are on a tight budget you can home educate for FREE.

Become a member of the library . If you have a library card you can get books out for FREE. If you are studying a particular subject and they don’t have the books you need in stock. Ask them to order them in for you. It’s that easy. Often libraries, certainly the bigger ones, will have special days when they offer crafts and activities as well.

. If you have a library card you can get books out for FREE. If you are studying a particular subject and they don’t have the books you need in stock. Ask them to order them in for you. It’s that easy. Often libraries, certainly the bigger ones, will have special days when they offer crafts and activities as well. Use free educational resources . There are so many amazing free homeschool websites you can use for all types of learning. For example Khan Academy, free typing games, free coding games.

. There are so many amazing free homeschool websites you can use for all types of learning. For example Khan Academy, free typing games, free coding games. Use Pinterest . It has so many great printables and ideas of things you can do.

. It has so many great printables and ideas of things you can do. Contact local business – see if you can arrange field trips at local businesses. Some ideas would be, fire/police station, shop, food outlet, farm but honestly the options are endless. Now not everyone will say yes, but a lot will. Real-life learning! I love it.

– see if you can arrange field trips at local businesses. Some ideas would be, fire/police station, shop, food outlet, farm but honestly the options are endless. Now not everyone will say yes, but a lot will. Real-life learning! I love it. Free Books – you can get lots of Kindle / audiobooks for free. If you are looking for books a 9 year old might enjoy check out my post.

– you can get lots of Kindle / audiobooks for free. If you are looking for books a 9 year old might enjoy check out my post. Youtube – now I hate screentime, but as a mum of a 9 year old I have to give in!!! But youtube has loads of free videos that are educational.

Museums / Art Galleries – A lot of these are free, of course, check before you go. But these are a great way to get out and about while learning and having fun.

Cost to send your kids to school per year!

Now, of course, this list is how much we have spent in the past, and of course, I could have found the items cheaper! For example not buying a pencil case from Smiggle! But I hope this gives you an idea of how much it costs to send your children to school. The below list doesn’t include other miscellania, like other educational programs or the spanish clep test practice that many parents undertake for their kids.

School Uniform £209

School Shoes – £45

Polo Shirts £21 (from Debenhams for 6)

School Branded Jumpers £42 (for 3)

Sports Clothes £12 (£5 for shorts, £7 for 2 t-shirts)

School Trousers £13 (for 2)

Trainers (to leave at school for PE) – £25

School Shorts £7 (for 1)

Pencil Case £12.50 (from Smiggle)

School Socks £6 (pack of 5)

School Bag £25

Educational School Trips £250

School Dinners £430

Going on holiday in term time!!! It depends where you go, but we went to Mauritius just before he left school which cost us an extra £771.

Now if I take out our holiday cost, the actual cost of sending your children to school is over £1k a year! Will you spend that on homeschooling? Absolutely not!

How Much Does It Cost To Homeschool My Child?

Well for us, we don’t homeschool for free, but that is a choice we have made. But it is certainly cheaper than sending your children to school!! With all of the costs listed below, we probably spend about £500 a year. I haven’t included clubs he attended before as we had that cost anyway. However, please remember YOU CAN HOME SCHOOL FOR FREE!

Homeschool Resources

We currently subscribe to IXL, check out my full review. Which costs approximately £100 a year. But there are others such as EdPlace which is also a similar price.

We also subscribe to Twinkl which costs about £60 a year. I love their worksheets. However, they do have Twinkl FREE downloads you can use.

Educational Days Out

We tend to have a big day out at least once a month, and our favourites are Bosworth Battlefield and Kidzania.

As a home educator, you are entitled to school prices! So you can get amazing discounts (as long as you go in term time) from nearly all attractions. For example, Legoland, Eden Project, the zoo etc. You will need to organise this before you go though, so make sure you contact them in advance.

Books

Freddie absolutely loves reading, even from an early age. So although we do borrow books from the library (for free) we also buy books. We tend to buy them in bulk, so his favourite at the minute is David Walliams

Educational Subscription Box

We change this quite regularly, but we subscribe to educational subscription boxes every month. The reason we change them regularly is if we had the same box every month he gets a little bored!

Educational Board Games

I have included this in here, but actually, we don’t generally buy them. Either Santa brings them for Christmas or he will ask for them for his birthday. But we absolutely love playing board games. Our all-time favourite is Frenetic (check out our review, but we highly recommend it!)

Arts Supplies

We do get through a lot of paper! So this probably with ink costs us about £20 a month!

Sports Clubs / Theatre Club

This is something we did before we deregistered him from school. However, if your kids did not attend sports clubs, I would highly recommend it if they are homeschooled. Mainly so they can interact with their peer group while keeping fit! I am not going to go on about homeschool socialisation because quite frankly I find it ridiculous (Freddie spends more quality time with friends and family than ever before). But you get my meaning!

Homeschool Room

This is absolutely optional of course. You can homeschool from just about anywhere! We already had a home office so we made some slight adjustments.

If you are looking for ideas on what you need for your homeschool room, check out my Amazon store.

Funding for Homeschooling

Now I wish this was the case, but no. If you home educate your child, you will get NO FUNDING. It is like private education, if you opt-out of state schooling, you have to pay for it.

However, you are just as entitled to tax credits and benefits if you homeschool as you are if your children attend school.

How much does homeschooling cost? Zero. That’s right, it doesn’t have to cost you anything.

There are so many free home education resources you can use you don’t have to spend anything. Now, we spend more than this which I will detail below. But….

YOU DON’T HAVE TO SPEND ANYTHING TO HOME EDUCATE YOUR CHILD. Can you homeschool for free? Absolutely, there are so many free resources you can use. If you are on a tight budget you can home educate for FREE. Is there funding for homeschooling? If you home educate your child, you will get NO FUNDING. It is like private education, if you opt-out of state schooling, you have to pay for it.

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Summary Article Name Cost of Homeschooling in the UK Description What is the cost of homeschooling? Well, it can be as little as ZERO, but see how much homeschooling costs us in the UK. Author Freddies Mummy UK Publisher Name Freddies Mummy UK