Homeschooling is a huge responsibility and it often takes significant sacrifice. One of the most obvious (and most daunting) is financial. Generally, at least one parent has to give up an income to stay home with the children and make learning happen in a safe and happy environment.
So, it’s not terribly surprising to find numerous comments on the socials along the lines of, “I’d love to use that curriculum but it’s too pricey for us.” Honestly, my heart broke when I read a similar line at the end of a glowing Milestone Math review. Like many (if not most) Aussie homeschool curriculum developers, my main aim is to help out my fellow homeschoolers. If I could, I 100% would give away my curriculum for free. Truth be told, I nearly did… but that’s a story for another time.
If you spend a few minutes speaking to a curriculum developer at an expo, you’ll generally find a person that’s extremely passionate about this community. They invest thousands of hours and significant personal expense into their resources. But there’s a reality we all face: most developers are homeschoolers themselves. They have the same everyday issues you do, including a “one-room schoolhouse” full of mouths to feed.
Most people understand this and are generally very happy to pay a fair price for the work that’s gone into a quality homeschool resource but that begs the question…
What is a fair price?
This is a very good question. We all know that any curriculum which comes out of the US is crazy expensive once it hits our shores. Why? Well, the exchange rate doesn’t do us many favours but the cost of shipping is the real killer.
But what about locally produced curriculum? I’m glad you asked. Firstly, we have the issue of economies of scale. When a homeschool curriculum gains a 1% market share in the US, they have 30,000 customers. The same performance in Australia means 300 customers. That’s a 10,000% difference! To put it simply, Australian homeschool curriculum needs to have a higher margin to even be viable.
For physical curriculum, our production costs are also higher. I chose to produce Milestone Maths myself because to obtain the quality I demand from a print-on-demand service, it would cost between 3 and 4 times my current budget. Printing, laminating and binding is hard work and takes time that could be spent writing or with family. It’s a labour of love but it’s the only way to keep Milestone Maths accessible to as many families as possible.
I don’t believe my story is unique. Many, if not most, homeschool curriculums out there are produced by homeschool mums and dads who are in a similar boat to you and me. If anyone understands the need to provide value for money to the homeschool community, they do.
What does the cost actually mean?
To put things in perspective, it might help to calculate what a curriculum is actually going to cost per week or per lesson. Let’s take Milestone Maths Level D as an example. Every workbook in Level D has a RRP of $39.95 and is supposed to last one school term (so 10 weeks). Doing the maths, we find that’s a whisker under $4 per week. If you’ve got your kids enrolled in some ‘extra curricula’ activity such as swimming lessons or an art class, chances are you’re paying at least 4 or 5 times that for a weekly lesson. Should a major core subject be considered “too expensive” when it costs just 20% of the price of an elective?
Things are even better when you look at our bundle pricing. The Level D book bundle has a RRP of $149. Dividing that by 40 school weeks we get just $3.73 per week, or just 93 cents per lesson. You’d be hard pressed to buy a treat for the kids at that price!
We’re here to help
Eight years ago my husband and I made the decision to move to the country to escape the rat race and make a better, healthier life for our children. For the first few years we had zero income. It was a tough time. So, I get it. I know what it feels like to have a bank account running on empty. It can be hard to find the lump sum needed to purchase a year’s worth of any curriculum.
But I’m not just going to wring my hands and sigh, “Oh, well… What can you do?” I’m a compulsive problem solver so I’m working hard behind the scenes to find a periodic payment plan solution to help hardworking families like you get the curriculum you need now and pay it off slowly in more manageable bites. Watch this space!
In the meantime, I will continue to release free lessons and resources. To make sure you never miss a free resource, be sure to sign up to our newsletter below. As a thank you, you’ll get instant access to our members vault and a direct link to one of our most valuable free resources: “Learn and Practice Multiplication Facts.”
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