I keep forgetting to answer question in the title, which someone asked me via e-mail. My answer:
I do not know how much it will cost you if you decide to enroll with Kolbe. It depends on:
- How many children you are enrolling.
- What parts of the program you choose to use. (Even if you order full-menu, there are choices).
- How you acquire your books.
Proven accountant trick: Get out your spreadsheet and add it up.
Some Tips for Lowering Your Total Cost
1. Get yourself onto CathSwap, so you can buy used books from people.
2. Beg and borrow books from people you know. Many Kolbe books are also used by the other major Catholic homeschooling programs.
3. Do every-other-year on subjects that you really don’t need to do the full shebang for. We do that with the National Catholic Reader — I only own years 2, 4, & 6. I’d take the others if someone gave them to me, but we get plenty of benefit from just the half-set.
4. If you own a computer of some kind (such as the one you are reading this blog on?), look on Kindle or Project Gutenberg for free e-books for out-of-copyright works.
5. If you don’t own a computer, or you just like paper, go to the thrift store or garage sale to find your classic works of English literature. That is where the ones that don’t get composted end up. (I know!) You won’t necessarily find the best edition, but it will do. At $0.25 – $0.50 a piece, most people can afford to speculate that their kindergartener will in fact read Tom Sawyer one day. You can even afford to accidentallly buy duplicates now and again.
6. Don’t buy services you don’t need.
7. Don’t buy services you can’t afford. That’s more important than #6. If you haven’t got the cash, do something else. Learn to avoid debt, and your child will have a very strong foothold on the world.