Notgrass History vs. Sonlight History

[King's Kid]

I'm looking into Notgrass history for my 15dd for 10th grade next year and wonder how it compares with Sonlight history which we've been using for most of our homeschooling years. (I don't think we'll be able to afford a core this year.)

 

A few questions I'd love answers for are:

 

Is it strictly history or does it incorporate geography?

 

Does it include writing assignments?

 

How thorough is it?

[Alphabetika]

I would say that Sonlgiht and Notgrass are nearly opposite. That is, SL is lit-based and discussion-oriented, Notgrass is more textbooky and the questions posed about each chapter are more comprehension and memory than analysis. There is literature included in the source document guide, though, and it's very enriching.

 

Notgrass American doesn't include geography. It does include writing assignments, though.

 

HTH!

[mamaluvs2hs]

I'm normally a lurker, but I'm interested in the answers to your questions also.

 

I've always used SL, but have decided to switch to Notgrass next year.

 

DS15 will be doing world history. :)

[Alphabetika]

We had always used lit-based history (Sonlight, TruthQuest, a year of BF)) and dd asked for something more straightforward, with questions after each chapter; she felt she'd learn better that way. I came upon Notgrass and liked it because the "textbook" part of it is an easier, linear read, while the source documents and other writing in the extra readings are harder and give a rich flavor of various times, people, attitudes. If not for these extra documents, I wouldn't have chosen it because I wasn't ready to break completely from lit-based studies.

 

We didn't use the English portion or much of the Bible, but my dd answered all of the questions after each chapter. The literature she did read was excellent - Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom's Cabin, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. I certainly could have enhanced her studies by using more materials, but this was enough for this year! She did some extra reading on her own on topics she found interesting, and we watched 2 excellent documentary series on the Civil War (Ken Burns - highly recommended!) and WWI, due to her interest.

 

I've read that most people do Notgrass World History before American history. We own both, but I gave dd the choice. She chose American history first because she's interested in American gov't, and she thought she would follow up her history studies with Notgrass gov't. Since then, we have found out about a gov't class offered locally, so she'll do that in her 11th grade year (not next year, but the next) rather than Notgrass. We do eventually plan to use the World History, but I will most likely spread it out over 2 years and add LOTS of living books, which is what we're doing next year while using BJU Geography.

 

Whew! From Sonlight/TQ to BJU! It's a slippery slope! :tongue_smilie: I never dreamed we'd get away from literature-based, but some people learn better with a more linear approach. I am not one of them, but my dd is, so I respect that. We're blessed to have so many choices!

 

Hope my rambling helps someone!

[Love2Smile]

Does Notgrass have ALOT of Bible study like My Father's world?

 

I ask because even tho we are Christian, I prefer a curriculum such as SL which does not integrate the Bible into the curriculum

[Alphabetika]

It's very easy to skip the Bible study portions if you don't want to use them. They come every fifth day (Friday, if you do a unit starting each Monday) and you can just skip them. Sometimes they coordinate with the history, sometimes not. My dd got tired of them and I allowed her to skip them after awhile because she has Bible in so many other venues.

[Sharon in MD]

Just wanted to second Alphabetika's well expressed ideas. We used Notgrass for American and I've used Sonlight a couple times in the past. I think she summed it up extremely well. Notgrass worked well for us for exactly these reasons...linear...but the documents and other original texts add a little challenge and the lit is good too...although we used a co-op for that.

 

As for the Bible stuff....it is easy to use or drop as your needs require. We had a really good world view course planned so we did very little of the bible stuff. It did not impact the course, IMO.

[King's Kid]

Thanks! This is very interesting.

 

Am I to understand that the Bible portion is only once per week, on Fridays? Or is it a Friday assignment to be completed over the course of a week?

 

I like the idea of dd receiving 3 credits for completing the course: history, English and Bible.

[Alphabetika]

I'm back! I'm enjoying this topic. :)

 

The Bible study lesson is on Friday, so you don't need to study it over the week. It does often pertain to topics studied during the week (I can give an example if you'd like). Typically, my dd would read one lesson a day, read the extra documents (or sometimes she'd ask me to read them to her so I could help her understand them, especially the ones in older-style language; who knew how WORDY George Washington was?!) answer the questions, and if there was whole-book literature to read, she'd read that, spreading it out over the recommended time. Notgrass is perfectly set up for linear learning - a lesson a day, no more, no less, unless you want to move more quickly (or more slowly, I suppose). If you don't want to the Bible portion, just skip Fridays. This would be a good day to add in extra DVDs or other resources. The way it worked for us was that my dd would skip Notgrass (and other academics) on Wednesdays because she has all sorts of outside artistic commitments on Wednesday, so it spread out nicely over 4 days when we began skipping the Bible. I also think it would be a good co-op curriculum because it would be easy to clearly state to the students when to do each lesson.

 

I think the Bible portion is good and through-provoking, but we chose to skip it for reasons stated above, and also because dd was also using Starting Points, plus going to Bible study and attending an apologetics class at church.

 

Goodness, every time I talk about Notgrass, I ramble. Thanks for listening!