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RE: Notgrass adaptable for younger students?


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This looks like a great program, however, my kids are in 6th and 7th grades, I am wondering if this would be over the top? Based on the samples on line I have not seen anything as appealing for middle school history, espeically US.

 

Would also love to hear general pros and cons of the program.

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Pros: easy to use for an independent learner because of the syllabus style text, uses good literature, includes excellent writing topics each week and the student chooses which one to write on, includes quizzes and tests if you want to use those

 

Cons: I think the literature is light, so I added more literature and also some more history lit (my dd did both U.S. history and World History). I know many people use it as is, but we had always completed far more literature in our studies, so I knew Notgrass would be too light in this area for her. While Bible is included, I don't think it is worth a credit as the website states. Since you are looking at it for middle school, this would not be a problem. One of the programs (U.S. history or World History, I can't remember now) had quality tests which included short answers, and one had tests that had no short answer, and were too simplistic, in my dd's words. Sorry, I can't remember which one U.S. History had.

 

I am sure a middle school student could use the program, but I don't know if that same student would be able to get the depth of analysis like a high school aged student would. We did like Notgrass history, though, and I would use it again.

 

Have you seen the Teaching Company US and World History dvd sets that are high school level? They are very interesting and go along with any history program you may use. The instructor is creative, dressing up as a period historic character and delivering each lecture in character. It comes with book suggestions, notes and essay topics for each lesson. You may want to look at this for your middle school children. While it is for high school, my middle schoolers loved it and it was certainly appropriate for them. It would be possible to use these dvd lessons as a spine and add reading material, or use them to spice up a history text. I just wanted to present it as an idea.

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  • 6 months later...

Dina, I'm not sure if you're looking for more replies on this for a middle schooler or a high schooler. I think Notgrass by itself is pretty light for a high schooler.

 

Just to give you an idea, My Father's World uses Notgrass World History as their main history spine in years 1 and 2. Then they add a whole lot of other stuff to it to make it a two-year course (at the high school level, college-prep). I think the writing instruction in Notgrass is weak, but is much more thorough if you're using MFW (the complete program). I also agree with the pp who said the Bible in Notgrass isn't *really* worth a full credit's worth.

 

Thus, if your child is using Notgrass before high school, or during high school but isn't college bound, then Notgrass by itself would be sufficient.

 

Oh, one other thing.... We were trying Notgrass by itself, as well as their lit suggestions, before I went ahead and bought MFW AHL, and I (as well as my dd) are soooo glad I went with AHL. We *like* Notgrass alright, but there's so much more meat to AHL! But what I noticed with Notgrass and their lit suggestions is that there's very little tie-in between the literature and the history. Actually, I guess the tie-ins are more spiritual than historical; thus, we're using many of the Notgrass lit suggestions for my dd's scheduled "Reading" time each day in MFW. MFW's scheduled literature is related to the historical time period... so we're getting the best of both worlds. ;) But again, that's for a high schooler.

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Thanks Donna! Julie and I were wondering about using it with middle schoolers. I spoke with Mr. Notgrass and he said the text was very doable for this age, but the literature selections would be too much and the children most likely would not get much out of the readings.

 

He prefaced his response with we as the parents know our children best. I am really considering trying World History for 7th or 8th as DD reads on an accelerated level. I do need to review the literature selections carefully!

 

:bigear:

Would still love to hear to hear others opinions about this! :bigear:

 

Dina

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Thanks Donna! Julie and I were wondering about using it with middle schoolers. I spoke with Mr. Notgrass and he said the text was very doable for this age, but the literature selections would be too much and the children most likely would not get much out of the readings.

 

He prefaced his response with we as the parents know our children best. I am really considering trying World History for 7th or 8th as DD reads on an accelerated level. I do need to review the literature selections carefully!

 

:bigear:

Would still love to hear to hear others opinions about this! :bigear:

 

Dina

 

I agree with all of that! I had bought the literature package that goes with the World History text, but decided to skip the C.S. Lewis books... and that's for a 9th grader who's a mature reader and who has a lot of discernment. I wouldn't have had her read most of the literature choices in 7th or 8th grade, either. But the history and Bible lessons are very doable for that age, especially if they're a strong student.

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