Recently, a new homeschooler asked these questions. Here are my answers:

1.? How many days and hours per week do you spend preparing materials for the week?

That will depend on how you choose to homeschool.

a) School-in-box will take the least as the plans are already laid out.
b) Preparing your own material will take more time unless you use the tons of online ideas and lessons someone else has gathered and posted.

I've used both of the above before we moved into Unschooling =) Unschooling goes about education in a completely different way so it would be extremely hard to calculate the hours spent. My spouse and I are always looking for interesting things that we think our son will like. My son is greatly into Biology (focusing mainly on cats and dogs) so I've found all types of great books, documentaries, and hands on exposure for him. He gets to explore the topic as deep as he likes which has lead to him exploring way beyond the age/grade level normally designed for a child his age.

Prior to moving into unschooling, homeschooling took approximately 1/4 of the time to accomplish the daily work then the amount of time the school had required. Looking back, it became apparent that there was a lot of wasted time in the schools of lining kids up and taking turns for things like bathroom breaks and water fountain breaks.

With Unschooling, learning happens all the time. It's more of an ebb and flow of information and discovery. If something is intriguing, there's no reason to stop because it's time to switch topics or subjects. (This also applies to homeschooling, too.)

This has more to do with what is happening locally and within driving distance. I signed up for all types of alerts so we get notification when the museams are having special events, when the parks are having special events, when the county is hosting interesting classes we may want to explore, etc...

This is so open ended. You can buy a membership to the local Science Center and that usually gains you entry to all the museums. A membership to your local Zoo is also a good investment. Other trips can vary.

As one mom stated, the cost per tuition far exceeds the cost of homeschooling material. Tons of great material is free from the Library and internet. For us, our main expense is books, books, and more books. I have readers who LOVE books so I'm always looking to keep the house stocked.

There are tons of ways to save money or you can buy new and spend more. One of the best investments I've made is the complete Life of Fred Series. As your child is still young, you can sign up for the Scholastic Book Fair and save lots of money on attending one of their warehouse sales. I've known families that spend a fortune and families that don't.

Yahoo Groups has been an excellent resource and is free. There are also tons of homeschooling parents who blog and post tons of lesson plans, ideas and free links. One of the first I was told about is the www.homeschoolblogger.com site. I found so much great information there when I first started this journey.