Need advice for a mom who is pulling kids out of PS

Well we started at the beginning of history with our then 5th grader and 2nd grader and a tag-along preschooler (3 years old at the time). We used Mystery of History b/c I didn’t know about SCM. I would have used SCM had I known of it. One thing I loved about MOH (and couldn’t find anywhere else) was that it weaved secular and biblical history together, and that all ages could study together. I just happen to like how SCM does this better.

So, I would say she could start history wherever she likes, but with her children’s ages I’d start either at SCM Module 1 or Module 4, either at the very beginning or the beginning of early modern.

For science, I can’t recommend enough Apologia’s Elementary courses. I would suggest she start with the Animals books or perhaps Astronomy depending on which she thinks would interest all of her children most. These work so well for multiple ages. I’m assuming she wants to teach science from a creationist view. If not, apologia might not be a good fit. I think though they do it well, and allow the parents to expand on this to their desire. We choose to expose our children at varying levels depending on age to the different thoughts out there so they are aware when they hear it elsewhere.

Those are my thoughts and yes, DECOMPRESS will be greatly needed based on our eperience. We pulled our then two sons from PS at end of 4th grade and 1st grade (same time). Our older son had to decompress more than younger, but it was needed. I had to really encourage our older son along in being more independent. I don’t mean I just let him loose, but he was waiting for someone to tell him what to do it seemed every second of every day. They were really like little programmed robots sadly.

I would suggest your friend start with Module 1 (Ancient) and go through it with all the kids together. OR, if she perfers start with Module 5 (Early Modern) and go through it all together with all of them. Personally I would decide between the 2 based on what living books are more available to me with little effort. Honestly, I don’t think it matters where she starts because what she will teach, especially if she goes CM, will be so much more than what the children learned in PS.

The best home education advice I ever got was to *start slow, then ease up*. Really the consistant small effort over time makes huge progress so don’t stress over finishing every page of every book or keeping up with the PS. You don’t need to keep up because the PS and HS are so different you can’t even measure their real effects in the same ways!

Don’t worry about leaving gaps. Gaps happen, as long as they know how to learn they can fill in their gaps when they need or want to fill them in themselves.

Another bit of helpful information- many experienced home educators say children need to “deschool” after being pulled out of a traditional classroom, and that was also my experience as well. My 2 oldest sons went to school for a year and a half. The rule of thumb is one month of deschooling for every year of traditional school, but I would say double that if a child has struggled a lot in PS. Use the deschooling time to build relationship with the kids and to become more comfortable with the many home ed options available.

HTH!

Sorry, I meant to say that starting with Mod 1 would be the best place to begin, as others have mentioned.