One of the most commonly cited criticisms of homeschooling is that it is a choice only available to the rich. That it costs thousands of dollars a year to do it well, and must involve a single-income household (largely viewed also as a lifestyle only available to the well-to-do).
We are, of course, a prime example of why this isn’t true.
We both work and have full adult lives, but we do manage to nearly always have one of us home to assist in and facilitate learning, which at this point usually involves being available to prompt discussion or answer questions. The 12yo boy involved has been on this path of his own choice since he was in 3rd grade, and is largely of an independent mind when it comes to what he’s up to at any given point.
Kid Genius faces the big World of Knowledge with his own weapons
Perhaps it is our higher education degrees that enabled us to feel confident enough to eschew expensive curricula, but we’ve never come close to missing the artificial organization of teacher-created structure. That, in my opinion as someone with a Secondary Ed degree, is what you have to use when you have a big classroom. The advantage of one-on-one instruction (or small groups) is that you can follow the interests of the child(ren). And that is precisely what we do, though after a few years of unstructured math, we have invested in a grade-level workbook.
There were some major investments that have made it all possible, I must admit.
We bought Tivo and a basic digital cable package, for instance. This means there are always interesting and timely documentaries and films immediately accessible for watching. The Science Channel and both History and History International are fabulous resources. Our trade-off as expense goes is that we do not view movies in the theatre more than about four times a year or rent DVDs.
At any given time of the day, Boy Genius can pull up programs we recorded months ago on atomic science or the environment or ancient Troy. There is, we believe, a whole lot of TV that is usefully educational, especially if you can eliminate the commercials.
(Incidentally, we don’t really think he’s a genius, nor do we call him that, but he is pretty smart, and more so every day. I think I might be being sarcastic by using it here.)
Also, we have made sure that each individual in our home is equipped with a decent personal computer with wi-fi access. We feel that competing either within the home or at school for computer time is a major obstacle to learning to use technology properly and expertly. No, he isn’t allowed to spend his every waking moment burning up his eyes on screens, but he is given much freedom to explore the Net and the uses of various programs. (With supervision, of course. And we use the standard Google SafeSearch, which he hasn’t yet noticed or figured out how to disable … yet.)
Beyond this, there are classes in martial arts twice a week, and snowboarding and piano lessons. Soccer in the summer. Those sorts of things cost a lot for our income, of course. But I think every family does what they can to get their kids into being active and musical. These would be our most stressful expenses, actually, except BG wants to participate in these things. If he had to be made to practice piano, for instance, that would make things pretty different.
So with these initial investments, the time commitment both in the home and in our homeschooling neighborhood, and community resources like the library, we have more than what we need to homeschool effectively.
Today’s schedule, as a for instance: He spent the first hour or so making a movie on XtraNormal, a new, free, online movie maker. Then we watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which led to a discussion of Shakespeare, Hamlet, existentialism and the meaning of life. Right now he’s practicing his piano, and then he’ll learn a bit of Norwegian (his chosen foreign language) or we’ll read Sir Walter Scott’sRob Roy together. Then he wants to get back into movie-making, which will push “school time” far past the time when his sister returns from “The Institution.” 
A pretty typical day at home. Don’t worry, though, he gets out to visit and hang with friends most days of the week, often as a part of “school.”
Happiness 