What should chess lessons cost?

1.5 hour lesson in person

Depends...

Depends on the skill level of the teacher.

Depends on location.

Depends on if the lessons are in person, or on skype.

Lessons are generally in 1 hour blocks. 

For beginners, and small kids, its probably better to do even less than an hour.

chess lessons are mighty expensive. i would recommend a diamond membership over chess lessons

My kids ages are 12, 10, and 8. We live in a rural area with only one teacher. I think he's rated about 1400. The next closest teacher is about 2 hours drive away, and I won't drive that far. I would like over the board lessons. The kids are beginners. I would guess they would rate about 500-600. He wants to charge $35 per kid for 1.5 hour every other week. Does this seem fair? I would understand this for a private lesson but for a group $35 per kid seemed a little high.

My kids ages are 12, 10, and 8. We live in a rural area with only one teacher. I think he's rated about 1400. The next closest teacher is about 2 hours drive away, and I won't drive that far. I would like over the board lessons. The kids are beginners. I would guess they would rate about 500-600. He wants to charge $35 per kid for 1.5 hour every other week. Does this seem fair? I would understand this for a private lesson but for a group $35 per kid seemed a little high.

absolutely not

I used to have a expert coach and he charged 20 dollars for an hour lesson. not even to mention that 1400 is not good enough to train kids, as they are still learning how to not blunder. even at 1700 otb, which is what I am at, there are still blunders and missed, important ideas, by both sides, that should be understood by the coach before teaching

10 an hour

If the kids are beginners, there is no need to throw money away on a coach.  Ill give you the keys to the kingdom for free:

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
3. Castle
4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

The objective of development is about improving the value of your pieces by increasing the importance of their roles. Well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces and they do more in helping you gain control.

Now we will look at 5 practical things you can do to help you achieve your development objective.

They are:

1. Give priority to your least active pieces.

• Which piece needs to be developed (which piece is the least active)
• Where should it go (where can its role be maximized)

2. Exchange your least active pieces for your opponent’s active pieces.
3. Restrict the development of your opponent’s pieces.
4. Neutralize your opponent’s best piece.
5. Secure strong squares for your pieces.

Don’t help your opponent develop.

There are 2 common mistakes whereby you will simply be helping your opponent to develop:

1. Making a weak threat that can easily be blocked
2. Making an exchange that helps your opponent to develop a piece

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Go to a bookstore (A great way to spend family time together) get the book "How to beat your dad at chess" by Murray Chandler.  Great book for beginners.  

Use a real board, and pieces.  Open the book, and enjoy!

Book recommendation? We have Bobby Fisher teaches chess.

*Fischer

A good book, that Fischer had nothing to do with, except for being paid to have his name attached to the title.  So Fischer isnt exactly teaching chess with that book.

LOL!!!

Thinking out loud:

Why would you pay for / take a lesson from a 1400 rated player if the average rating in the US is even a bit higher ???

OK - there is always a reason, teacher is close by, does very well with the kids and so on! And you at least try to get help instead of thinking you can do it ALL yourself - which is good.
Think yourself: Why in the world should anybody leave his house if you don't even pay $35 ???

On top ... you are asking this question in a world wide / or at least nation wide forum. Isn't it silly to ask people around the world from which more than 50% are stronger players than your coach?
You probably didn't know?!
hmmm
Maybe it is the right think do to, you say!?
Well you get a lot of answers, do you! :-)

Here my five cents: 
A)You can do with your money what you want, and pay and offer how much you want .
You are the one that decides how your children are brought up!

B)
A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL NOT REMOTELY UNDERSTAND the reason why you are still paying for lessons (not even people from east and westcoast can imagine how "rural" US-america can be in the midwest / how scarce resources - are) to a average player.

So nobody from outside the US can give you a qualified answer. And nobody here can estimate how much it should cost as we don't live in your area. This is not a question about the value of chess lessons but about your surroundings and how hard it is to get lessons where you live!

C) Hint:
Just go to the next adult tournament (uschess.org -> tournaments) look up the 10 best players, ask the tournament director - make your pick who you like - ask!

Best
Goetterfunken - a master candidate that lived and taught in the midwest, lives in the bay area and who would certainly ask for a lot more than $35

Are the kids all at the same level of play? If so, then a group lesson makes sense. If they're playing at different levels, then they should be trained individually, not as a group.

Taking the main factors into consideration (the lack of teachers in the area, the teacher's rating), I think a fair price would be:

$20/hour for individual instruction
$50/hour for group instruction

Also, lessons do not need to be more than 1 hour long, with about 1/2 - 2/3 of the time for instruction and 1/3 - 1/2 for training/exercises.