Lets take a look at the difference in Cost for Unschool vs Normal School. Rising cost for the school year is sometimes very hard on a family wallet and hard to understand when the public schools should be “free”.  The school system is leaning on families to pick up the bill as they cut school funding.  Like extra activities, such as art, sports, and music.  I wanted to show a comparison of what my family cost are for Unschooling compared to a typical public school.

Keep in mind that these cost are for two girls ages 11 and 12, 6th and 7th grade. We travel full-time in an RV and Unschool both girls.  They pick what they what to learn and how they are going to learn said subject.   I guide them to make sure they are learning and encourage them.  To find out more click here

Unschool Cost for two Middle school students

Park and Museum Passes and Movies

• $80 –  America the Beautiful National Park Family Pass, good for all National Parks for one year.
• $100 – Science and Technology museums, 300+ museums all over USA and Canada for one year good for a  2 adults and 4 kids family pass.
• $144 – Netflix– Educational movies and TV shows, or $12 month for 4 devices (girls can watch movies on their iPad or computers).

School Supplies/ Unschool Curriculum

• $0.00  Khan Academy – Free math course following Common Core
• $0.00 Language Arts – FREE library card, read ebooks if traveling, rent audio books, or when your close to library go in and get FREE books and DVDs etc
• $0.00 Learn to Mod – Free for us since we did the Beta version, $90 month for anyone else and your child will receive college credit and learn JAVA.  Also there is a one time $35 fee for Mindcraft (full version)
• $4 Notebooks and pencils – bought at dollar store to take to library when we do math and programing

Splurges

• $120 Photoshop or $10 month for student version for photoshop – learn how to edit pictures all sorts classes online or on youtube
• $800 5300 D Nikon Camera – which should last 10 years = $80 a year for my oldest daughter
• $320 Two Dell computers, Cost per year or or $160 per year per computer
• $500 Craft supplies for my younger daughter
• $40 year – Classes fro the Polymer Clay Tutor 
• Totals for everything includes passes, school supplies and splurges = $2,104 a Year which includes tones of family time which unfortunately most families do not get, getting to see over half the USA, museum, zoos, aquariums, national parks, family, friends and lots of camping fun.

Actual Cost for School supplies and curriculum

$4 Actual cost for school supplies – not including things you might get anyway: National Park Pass, Netflix, and Splurges like camera, computers and craft supplies

Cost “Normal School” supplies -info from District Dossier Blog

• $649 for elementary school children, a 1 percent increase compared to 2014
• $941 for middle school children, a 2.5 percent jump compared to 2014
• $1,402 for high school students, a 9 percent increase compared to 2014
• If parents have a child in elementary, middle, and high school, these costs would total to $2,992.