Forget FREE, Homeschool For A Profit!

Money, A Blunt Instrument

When it comes to homeschooling, with only one exception,….I’m a true liberal.

So long as the kids’ intellectual development isn’t being sabotaged by TV, video games, and so-called smartphones I don’t really care how they are being homeschooled. I just want them out of those wretched hoosegows! I’m supremely confident they will be far better off in many, many ways by virtue of merely skipping school. Climb trees, pick their noses, obsess over baseball cards, whatever it is they do will prove far happier, healthier, and prosperous in both the short and long run.

Of course there are many dichotomies and a wide spectra of methodologies within the homeschooling community. Yes I have my personal preferences and I’m just as chauvinistic about them as you are about yours, perhaps.

However I also have clients and some of them operate their homeschools much differently than I do. How so, you ask?

Well my wife and I do A LOT of stuff ourselves – or at least we did from the beginning.

But I have clients, and good friends, who put their kids in a lot of “classes” and who hire a lot of “private tutors”.

And I KNOW that their non-homeschooling friends say things like,

Sure, the Jones family can ‘homeschool’ because they have the money to spend thousands of dollars per month on teachers…I would do it too if I had that kind of budget.

Oftentimes those families actually do have the funds to hire tutors – they do have the capacity to dial back extravagances (2 BMWs, seriously?) and even have one parent scale back financially remunerative work. Putting that self-delusion aside for the moment…

Such a rationalization ignores the fact that many, many families homeschool quite successfully on shoestring budgets!

Furthermore, after years of working with kids both inside and outside the wretched system – many of whom are absolutely mind-blowing extraordinary(!) – I’ve come to the firm conclusion that those who are extremely self-motivated and boot-strapped their way up ultimately go FURTHER than those who had external motivation, i.e. organized classes and private instructors.

These are the kids who taught themselves via YouTube or books(!), who voluntarily practiced daily when there were no scheduled classes or lessons, and when they did get a private teacher….it was only after BEGGING for one for ages.

Time and again I watch these kids not only close the gap on their allegedly advantaged and precocious peer competitors, but surpass them. I see it particularly and most clearly when it comes to math, chess, and the playing of musical instruments but it certainly extrapolates to most other endeavors.

So what exactly am I getting at?

I want parents to understand that “Homeschooling for FREE” is not a mere survival strategy, it’s actually the optimal way to accelerate your kids’ development. Even the highest paid teacher on Earth agrees:

It’s not resources but resourcefulness that ultimately makes the difference. – Tony Robbins

So homeschooling without a budget should not be lamented, nor should the perceived lack of funds be an excuse to not homeschool. I’ll say it again, it is actually and ultimately an advantage.

Better Than Free

Now that I’ve (hopefully) debunked the money-advantage myth….I want to ramp it up some more.

The notion that homeschooling COSTS money – not to mention time and freedom – is one that I take great pleasure in challenging.

I tell parents that homeschooling properly ultimately SAVES money, tons of it.

Almost all kids on a “school track” are bound for college. That’s what school does, it prepares children for life only one thing, the next level up on the Obedience Curriculum.

Recently I was trying to explain to a parent that his 3 young children’s college bill, in about 15 years, would tip $1,000,000 – and that’s net income. So he’d have to gross upwards of $2,000,000 JUST to send his kids to college! (NOTE – college text books are already pushing $300 apiece, too.)

That’s a whole lot of money for not much in the way of guaranteed outcomes!!!

But your homeschooled child can embark on an entrepreneurial path AND may not even go to college at all – saving all of that aforementioned, obscene expense. I can tell you right now that my kids aren’t going to college – even though I already had my 11 year old take the SAT.

Homeschooled teens, and even younger children, have the opportunity to make gobs of money working because they are unencumbered by attendance obligations and suffocating homework.

I’ll never forget meeting that 16-year-old homeschooled girl who babysat for my wife and me one winter down in Naples, Florida (2010). In addition to being an impressive, mature and highly competent (did the dishes, read to our kids) young lady….she was driving a brand new car that she had bought with her own money! At 16! Her babysitting/nanny business was that lucrative.

I also know homeschooled kids who have dog-walking businesses, are professional voice-over artists, who tutor other kids, who play instruments at wedding masses ($300 per), etc. My own son gets paid to work on websites and podcasts online. My 10 year old daughter recently produced a cursive handwriting book that she peddles and has started a “scanning” business too.

The point is, as our kids get older, homeschooling quickly transforms from something that looked like a financial sacrifice to a financially savvy and farsighted INVESTMENT!

I’ve read that 80% of millionaires were once totally broke. Another stat I came across asserts that the average millionaire goes bankrupt at least 3.5 times.

Think about that. Those numbers are so big that one must realize it’s not mere interesting trivia, but that scratching and clawing from the ground up, without starting advantages or outside help, is actually THE RECIPE for outrageous success.

In fact there’s a great book written with similar ideas that I highly recommend for anyone trying to do anything – The Obstacle is the Way.

Now don’t get me wrong, money is an important thing. I’m not saying don’t earn it or spend it. All I’m saying is that for too many parents, homeschoolers and schoolers, it represents the greener grass, the one thing that if only they had more of….somehow, magically the world would open up to them.

Still unconvinced?

I’m going to leave you with three more inspirational quotes, from far weightier sources than me.

You have everything you need – Dr. Wayne Dyer

His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness… – Peter 2:13 (KJV)

If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need. – Cicero

 

~Dan