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Most homeschooling parents know that it is not always easy to choose a curriculum for a certain subject. Some people pick one curriculum for all the subjects when they first start homeschooling and then never change anything. Most of us see problems along the way and adjust by trying out different curriculum for that subject. History has been the one subject for which I have had the hardest time finding acceptable material that works well for our family.
I am not a huge history fan, and this may be part of the problem. Growing up, I had a hard time accepting history, because at times I learned a history “fact” only to find out later that it was not true. Anybody can write a history book, and there are many biases along the way. How does the saying go– “History is written by the victors”? Because of these things, I have struggled with what history curriculum to use when teaching my children history.
What We Have Tried
Over the course of time, I have tried many things. I have made up my own geography curriculum, which is pretty easy when you are just trying to get your kids to memorize states and capitals and where they are located. I have read to my younger children from historical fiction books to teach them about specific eras. I have even laboriously read a 6-volume Wisconsin history adult series, taking notes along the way and then lecturing to my children from the information that I gleaned. (Although very time-intensive, that was actually a good learning experience for me, not having grown up in Wisconsin!) I have tried various curriculums and even online college courses for my high schoolers. I have tried all these and more without finding anything that we really liked. We needed something that would teach us World and American History, for example, accurately.
Notgrass History Stands Out
Then we came across Notgrass History and been very pleased with it (at least for the high school years, which is where we have used it, so far). Our first introduction to Notgrass was to an older edition of the high school level American History curriculum, which we have used for several years now with a couple of my children. This year we are branching out with the World History (2008), as well as Government/Economics. Our first try at a lower level is my sixth grader this year doing From Adam to Us. It seems to be going well so far. (We use year round scheduling and have been doing this for about 30 lessons.) It does seem that the elementary student might need a little bit more help with reviewing and learning facts than the high schoolers, which says more for maturity than anything else.
The Pros of Notgrass
One of the benefits we have found for Notgrass history is that is very much a self-learning curriculum. The high school students have been able to go through the curriculum and follow the daily lessons, completing the tasks without the need for constant teacher intervention. This is an excellent thing- especially when there are several homeschoolers in the family with little ones that need a lot of parental attention!
High school Notgrass history curriculum is set up as not just history, but also Language Arts and Bible credits. I really like the way the history that is being studied is examined from a Biblical viewpoint. For some of the curriculum, the student is given assignments to memorize certain Bible passages. For others, they are asked certain thought-provoking questions, which they discuss from a Biblical perspective with their parent. Different writing assignments, as well as reading assignments, are given as part of the Language Arts credit.
For the American History course, each unit included different types of assignments from which the student could choose which he would like to do. My son, who completed it last year, really seemed to enjoy making models of tanks and train engines out of unique media like cardboard. My daughter, who took it before, seemed to gravitate more to the creative writing assignments. While I gave them a lot of freedom in the decision making process, I also made sure they did a little bit of each of the different types of projects.
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I am a big proponent of some form of quizzes and/or tests in the curriculum I use. I like to know how my children are doing in learning what they are supposed to be learning. I also like to have a formal grade to look back on to know how they did. I appreciate that Notgrass has quizzes and exams that can be used along the way for just that purpose. They seem to be a good middle ground- not impossibly difficult, but not ridiculously easy, either. (One fun side note: On their website, you can get all sorts of extra resources for older editions. I was able to get the review material and tests/quizzes for Government and Economics for $5!!!)
The Cons of Notgrass
It is a little hard to come up with many negatives to the Notgrass curriculum, but here are a few: The Scripture quotations are not from the King James Bible, which is what my family and church prefer. This is easy to counteract by having my children have their Bible alongside them to look up verses as they study.
Another thing that some might consider a negative is that it is not just a history curriculum, but also English/Literature and Bible. I really like Abeka for the Language Arts and would not want to stop using it completely for high school. We have found that the Notgrass grammar included with the history is VERY easy compared to Abeka! So far, we have done Abeka through 11th grade and tried Notgrass for the senior year. You could also just skip more of the writing assignments, if you were doing another language arts program.
Finally, I am very picky about what literature my children read, so some of the “classics” that Notgrass recommends we have chosen to skip. Most likely, this would not be an issue for most people.
Website Overview
What is their website like? Under their Curriculum heading, the Notgrass website breaks down their courses in three elementary courses, three middle school courses, and four years of high school courses. It appears that only the high school courses include language arts and Bible credits besides the history credit. They have a heading for More Resources that I have not completely delved into, yet. But I really appreciate the section for Bonus Downloads, which I spoke about earlier. I would also recommend the About Us section where they tell about their family and the history behind this company.
Thank you again for reading my blog! I hope this has been an informative look at Notgrass History for high school students. I hope to be able to write a positive review for their younger grades once we have tried them out more. As always, feel free to send a note through the comment section to add from your experience with this curriculum or to ask any questions you might still have.
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