Somebody asks what you charge, and the number you say next is the number you live with for a year.
That pressure is worse for homeschool work, because the job is bigger than tutoring and the pricing advice online is mostly written for hourly help. A certified teacher in one state being asked to homeschool Pre-K and Kindergarten children in another, three or four days a week, two hours a day, is not quoting for a tutoring session. They are quoting for a school year.
Here is a way to reach a number you can defend, and then hold.
The three numbers behind a homeschool rate
Your rate is a base, a premium and an adjustment, not a single guess. Working them out separately is what lets you explain the total later.
1. The base market rate. What tutors in the family's area charge for this subject and level. This is research, not judgement, and it is the part most people skip. Our 2026 guide to what tutors charge has UK, US and EU ranges by subject and level, plus a calculator, so start there and come back with a figure.
Note the family's location, not yours. A tutor in New York teaching a family in Florida is selling into the Florida market, and online delivery does not let you charge New York rates by default.
2. Your expertise premium. What you bring that the average tutor in that base rate does not. A state teaching licence, a degree in the subject, years of classroom experience, early years specialism, experience with a specific curriculum. Each is worth something concrete, and homeschool families are buying exactly this: they are handing over a school day, and credentials are what make that feel safe.
3. The context adjustment. This is where homeschool work separates from tutoring, and it runs in both directions.
What the homeschool premium actually covers
You are being paid for the hours you are not in the room. Standard tutoring supports a curriculum somebody else built. Homeschool instruction usually means:
- Choosing and sequencing the curriculum, or working to one the family picked and planning around it.
- Planning every session, rather than turning up to whatever homework arrived that week.
- Assessing and reporting progress, because there is no school report to fall back on and the parent needs evidence.
- Carrying the outcome. If the child is behind in March, that is your responsibility in a way a weekly tutor's never is.
Add up the planning and reporting time honestly. Two hours of teaching a day, four days a week, with an hour of planning and a monthly progress summary, is not eight paid hours of work. It is eight paid hours plus four or five unpaid ones. A premium that ignores this is a pay cut disguised as a full schedule.
Now the other direction. Guaranteed hours are worth a real discount. A family committing to eight hours a week for a school year removes the thing that makes freelance tutoring stressful: the gaps. That deserves a lower hourly figure than a one-off session, and offering it makes you look commercially sensible rather than desperate.
Price the two separately. A premium of X for scope and a discount of Y for volume are both defensible; a single number arrived at by feel is not.
Working the example through
Take the case above: a certified teacher, a family in another state, Pre-K and Kindergarten, roughly eight hours a week.
- Base. Research early years tutoring in the family's area. Say the local average lands somewhere in the middle of the range for that market.
- Premium. A state teaching licence and classroom experience with this exact age group is not the same product as a general tutor, so it sits above the average rather than at it.
- Scope. Full curriculum planning for two children plus progress reporting, so the premium goes up again.
- Volume. Eight guaranteed hours a week across a school year, so a discount comes back off.
- Siblings. Two children in the same session is more work than one but less than two, so a sibling rate lands between your single rate and double it.
Do not publish the arithmetic to the family. Publish the result as a weekly package: hours, subjects, what planning and reporting are included, the rate, and when you invoice. The family is choosing a programme, not buying time by the hour, and quoting it that way makes the number easier to say and easier to hear.
Turning the number into a practice
A rate you cannot administer is a rate you will quietly stop charging. Three things keep it intact:
Write the proposal before the conversation. One page: what you teach, how many hours, what planning and reporting are included, the rate, the invoicing schedule and your cancellation terms. If a family pushes back, change the scope rather than the number.
Store the rate against the student, not in your head. The moment you have a homeschool family on a bespoke rate alongside your usual students, mental arithmetic starts costing you money. A rate that lives on the student record is applied the same way every month whether you are paying attention or not.
Invoice on a schedule the family expects. A homeschool commitment is a recurring bill, not a series of surprises. Agree the day of the month and stick to it. Our guide on how to invoice tutoring students covers the routine.
Running it month to month
Once the rate is agreed, the work is making sure the invoice matches it every time. That is what tutor billing software is for, and the parts that matter for a homeschool family are specific:
- A rate that lives on the student. Set the agreed figure once on each child's record and it prices every session, so a bespoke homeschool rate never has to be remembered.
- Sibling rates without the mental maths. A family discount applies from the student records, so two children on one arrangement bill correctly without you recalculating.
- One invoice per family, not per child. Consolidated invoices put both children on a single document, itemised, which is what a parent paying for a whole school day actually wants.
- Recurring billing you still control. For a fixed weekly commitment, a recurring schedule prepares the invoice for the period so it is ready to review and send, rather than being rebuilt from scratch each month.
- Payments recorded against the invoice. Families pay you the way they already do, and you mark each one, so the status moves to paid, part-paid or overdue and you can see what is outstanding without opening your banking app.
The wider tutoring management software and tutoring scheduling software pages cover how the timetable and the billing connect.
FAQ
How do I set my hourly rate as a homeschool tutor?
Build it from three parts rather than picking a number. Start with the going rate for your subject and level in the family's area, add a premium for what you bring that an average tutor does not, such as a teaching licence or years in a classroom, then adjust for the scope of the job. Homeschool work usually justifies a higher rate than drop-in tutoring because you are planning the curriculum, tracking progress and carrying responsibility for a child's whole school day rather than supporting someone else's lesson plan.
Should I charge more for homeschooling than for regular tutoring?
Usually yes, because you are being asked for more. Standard tutoring supports a curriculum somebody else designed; homeschool instruction often means choosing the curriculum, sequencing it, assessing progress and reporting to parents, and that unpaid planning time is real. The counterweight is commitment: a family booking eight to twelve hours a week for a school year gives you income you can plan around, which is worth a genuine discount off your one-off rate. Price the premium and the volume discount separately so you can see what each is doing.
How much should I charge for Pre-K and Kindergarten homeschooling?
Research the local average first, then adjust for credentials and scope rather than assuming young grades pay less. Early years work is often priced below secondary tutoring, but homeschool instruction at that age is a full teaching role: play-based planning, phonics and number sequencing, and a parent who wants to see progress. A certified early years teacher planning the whole week is not doing the same job as someone hearing a child read for an hour. Quote it as a weekly package rather than an hourly figure, so the conversation is about the programme rather than the clock.
How do I present my rate to a family without it feeling awkward?
Put it in writing before you say it out loud. A single page listing what you will teach, how many hours a week, what planning and reporting are included, your rate and how invoicing works turns a number into a proposal. Families rarely argue with a scope they can read; they argue with a figure that arrives with no context. Send it, give them a day, then talk. If they want to negotiate, adjust the scope rather than the rate, because dropping the rate to win the booking sets the price for every month after it.
Do I charge a different rate for a second child in the same family?
Often, and it is easier to justify than a flat discount. Teaching a Pre-K and a Kindergarten child in the same session is more work than teaching one, but not double, so a sibling rate that sits above your single-student rate and below two full rates reflects what actually happens. Agree it up front and write it into the proposal. Whatever you settle on, store the rate against the family rather than recalculating it each month, because that is where quiet revenue leaks start.
Set the rate once, then let it hold
The tutors who get paid properly for homeschool work are not the ones who charge the most. They are the ones whose rate survives contact with a busy term, because it is written down, agreed in advance and applied automatically.
Work out your number using the three parts above, put it in a one-page proposal, and store it somewhere that will still be charging it correctly in March. You can try that side of it with a 14-day free trial of Teamlilit, no card required.
