Is $25/wk per class for a homeschooling Waldorf expensive?

[Emi1106]

Hi everyone,

I am interested in signing my four and a half year old dd up for a homeschooling Waldorf class at someone's home, and this lady has a Waldorf teacher at her home where she teaches the class once a week. The class meets once a week, and it costs $25/week per class for three hours. Is that expensive? What are the price range for a good Waldorf class? I am homeschooling my dd.

Any suggestions would be great.

Emi

[MamaSeasons]

I've seen it range between about 5 (lowest) to 11 (highest) when you work it out hourly... I don't know so much about a single class but for most add-on programs I have ever seen that is the range (a lot depends on the market and the COL in your area, I think). Also, what she will be doing while there. I used to offer a "playschool" two mornings per week that was waldorf-inspired and charge 25 for 4 hours, but that included an organic meal too. That said, I've also seen parent-child classes (2-3 hours, parents have to stay!) that are 30 bucks. 

So, imo, it's probably fairly average...

[lach]

I'm sure it really depends on the area, but here under $10 an hour is pretty good for kids classes.

[MammaG]

We're homeschoolers, too.  I have my middle son signed up for a home-based Kindergarten class this year as part of our Waldorf Co-op.  This particular class is in a member's home (well, outside that member's home!) and is taught by a Waldorf teacher.  Four hours, two days a week.  It's $45 for one day, $75 for both....so $300 per month.  There is a $150 materials fee per family for the year and we haven't figured out lunches yet, so it may be more (this is brand new....we just got it together this year).

I feel this is a fair price for the teacher's expertise.  Just compare it to tuition at a Waldorf School!  At our local school, I just found online, the Kindergarten tuition is $13,410 yearly plus a $350 materials fee.

My oldest son (Grade One) is taking a 90 minute outdoor science class, again led by a retired teacher.  That is $20 per child per class, and an arts class (1 hour) that will be $35 per child per class.

As a group, we are also looking into doing classes one of the local Waldorf schools.  We anticipate that this will be less expensive.

I'm going to guess that a class for your 4YO will be play-based and that you will be staying throughout the class?  Naturally, that would be less pricey.  But, unless there are 30 kids in the class (ours only have around 6 children per class), or there are no materials included in that, or it's parent-taught while teacher-led, it sounds about right to me.

[olien]

We pay $ 10 per hour for a 3hr class once a week in someones home. It is a little less for the summer camp since it is not as structured.