The Cost of Education

Saving for college? Try preschool!

We love kids, but let’s be honest: they are financial black holes. On top of all the “stuff” you have to get, it turns out that education is fairly rough on the wallet too. I was the Dean of Students for a private school (with a Montessori Preschool) and saw a lot of parents making huge sacrifices to provide an excellent education.

Bess Wuertz wrote an excellent post on her blog Grace and Green Pastures to compare the cost of early childhood education.

Home School vs. “Free” Public School

Bess does a great job of breaking down the typical cost to home school a single child: $500 to $1,000 a year.

The crazy part is when she starts talking about how much most families spend on a “free” public school. That’s right, it turns our that the average family spends $600 a year, which is more than some families spend to home school!

The Cost of Montessori

I have seen good Montessori preschools cost $8,000 to $12,000 a year. (I have also seen bad ones cost $12,000 a year…)

What about parents that want to be their child’s educator and also have the benefits of a Montessori Education? The good news is that Montessori at home can be almost as cheap or expensive as you want. It is possible to put together many Montessori inspired DIY activities. The trade off is the time it takes to research and plan. Take a look at my wife’s post Cheap Finds for some inexpensive ideas.

If you want to stay faithful to the materials that Dr. Montessori used, you can plan on spending quite a bit. Is one or the other better? That is a disagreement among teachers (“Montessori Inspired” and “Official Montessori”) that I’m not qualified to get into.

So What?

The point in all this–as Bess says so well–is to know what our options are so you can make an informed decision.
– Nathan Hadsall