First, you might be surprised to discover that the typical homeschool day—especially for elementary-aged children—takes a lot less time than it does in a traditional school setting.

But your instinct to consider the time commitment is right on. Homeschooling is a big investment for you as a parent. It involves taking full responsibility for your child’s education—planning out their school year and field trips, arranging for testing or other assessments, recordkeeping, figuring out what parts you will teach and what parts you might delegate to a tutor, a co-op, another parent, or an online or local course, etc.

And you’re already wearing a lot of hats—that’s true, too! Homeschooling is incredibly flexible—that gives you the beautiful opportunity to completely customize your homeschool schedule around your child’s learning pace and interests, your family’s calendar, and unique learning opportunities.

While homeschooling will not magically make them perfectly behaved, you’ll get to really know your kids and their passions. You’ll be able to develop a deep and lasting healthy relationship with each child, to nurture strong relationships with their siblings, to see their “firsts” and ah-ha! moments, and to help them learn to persevere through tears to triumph over their own challenges. You’ll also probably get to connect with other parents who will be happy to swap teaching or babysitting with you occasionally so you and they can get a break!

It depends! Homeschooling is personalized to each child and each family, so homeschool budgets can vary.

If you have the time and flexibility to borrow curriculum, use the library, shop for used books, find reusable, multilevel, or free curriculum, and exchange services for extracurriculars like music and art, you might pare your costs down to $50–100 per student.

Adding in extra resources like co-ops, online courses, enrichment classes, or sports could bring your budget up to $300–500 per student.

And if you opt for tutors, video courses, or all-inclusive curriculum packages, your cost could be $500 or more. (Still, that’s a lot less than private school!)

You can check out more creative ways to stretch your dollars here.

That’s OK! Not every schoolteacher teaches every subject. For the elementary grades, textbooks with teacher’s guides will give you the structure and the teaching tools that you need to teach subjects you’re unfamiliar with.

When your child reaches high school, you can call on subject specialists to help you out! Think about reaching out to your friends, family, faith community, homeschool groups, local networks, and online communities to for help with tutoring your teen, grading essays, or answering questions. You can also have your high schooler take outside courses at a co-op, community college, or online.

For an added boost to your confidence, keep in mind that homeschooling melds two of the strongest predictors of academic achievement: parental involvement and one-on-one learning.

Yes. And it can be a great option! Whether your child has a physical or mental disability or a specific learning disability, homeschooling may be the best option to help them thrive educationally. You may not be a special education expert, but you are an expert on your child!

Check out your state’s special needs provisions to see regulations that may apply to your homeschool. And please visit our Special Needs page to access free articles and other resources.