If you used Notgrass and it was NOT a "hit"

[Love2Smile]

Can you tell me what it was about it that your child did not like?

Was it too much reading? Too difficult to get thru?? what did you NOT like about it?

[Donna A.]

World history or American? We have the two-volume World History set, with recommended literature titles.

 

My dd likes it just fine, but by the time I switched out some of the recommended literature titles, started gathering resources to give her more geography, and sat down to figure out weekly lesson plans to incorporate all of it, I decided it was more prudent to stop trying to reinvent the wheel and ordered MFW AHL and was done with it. ;)

 

MFW stretches Notgrass out over two years, btw, and adds in other resources for a full credit each in Bible, History, and English. Notgrass by itself seemed to me to be awfully light for full credits. Even with the amount of literature and writing included (which is all very good and there's a lot of it, I might add), I would've also had to add something for writing instruction. They also recommend adding Easy Grammar Plus for grammar review/instruction if needed.... and the Bible portion is especially light.

 

Thus, I decided to go with MFW instead, using Notgrass and many of the recommended lit titles over two years -- http://www.mfwbooks.com/highschool.html

[Donna A.]

P.S. to put it more concisely.... We LIKE Notgrass. I just felt it was too light by itself, and wasn't really worth 3 full credits in those subjects without supplementing. :001_smile:

[MommyThrice]

We did American History this year and it was very weighty. I substituted some of my own literature, probably about the same amount. My 14ds felt the daily reading (and note-taking) was tough. The comprehension/discussion questions were overly picky and detailed. The writing assignments were long and required more research and thinking on his part. But I think he did enjoy the year - it just pushed him quite a bit. NOW I know that Notgrass American is tougher than World.

 

I plan to use 1/2 of World next year as the spine along with some Omnibus from the same time period and Gileskirk CDs.

[Love2Smile]

Which do you think is tougher, Notgrass or Bob Jones, if you have used BJU?

[Donna A.]

Yes, the recommendation by Notgrass is to do World first, then American.

[vmsurbat]

Which do you think is tougher, Notgrass or Bob Jones, if you have used BJU?

 

Jumping in here....

 

I've used BJU (US, bought and returned 3rd ed. WH) and Notgrass (American&Gov't, WH this coming year) and here is how I compare them:

 

Both are challenging in their own right.

 

BJU's texts are dense, a *full* program if used as written (ie., using the student activity pages, study questions, tests). Each chapter includes lots of facts, so much so that I think the big picture can be lost....

 

Notgrass's main texts are not as dense-the info is more focused--but the addition of the source book raises the difficulty level quite a bit. I personally like the weekly suggestions for writing projects as a means of "feedback/learning" vs. BJU's tests. IMO, the literature reading and weekly bible lesson (on Friday) round out the history program and don't earn any credits beyond that.

 

Since I wanted to use my history texts as a spine, I've ended up going with Notgrass because I've found it to be more suited (for our family) to accomodate add-ons.

 

HTH,

[krstbrwn]

I bought Notgrass American History, used it for about half of a semester, and then went to Bob Jones. I'm not sure I can pin down exactly why it didn't work for us. I did not know, however, that the recommended progression was from World to American. That may very well have been our problem, we needed a transition to the American history.

I did use Hewlitt's syllabus for the Bob Jones American History. It came with tests and writing assignments. It also required them to read at least one book, picked from a suggested list, every nine weeks. The book list was relevant to the time period being discussed. They then had to write a report on that book. As I said, there were also other writing assignments and map work for each nine weeks. I'm happy with what we ended up studying.

Kristi

[silliness7]

P.S. to put it more concisely.... We LIKE Notgrass. I just felt it was too light by itself, and wasn't really worth 3 full credits in those subjects without supplementing. :001_smile:

 

Hi Donna,

I think I was talking to you on another thread about MFW. :001_smile: Since you have experience with Notgrass, do you think Notgrass would be worth 2 full credits lit and history? I could do without the Bible or maybe give 1/2 credit.

[Donna A.]

Hi Donna,

I think I was talking to you on another thread about MFW. :001_smile: Since you have experience with Notgrass, do you think Notgrass would be worth 2 full credits lit and history? I could do without the Bible or maybe give 1/2 credit.

 

For English (Lit/Composition), sure, if you have something to cover the writing instruction as needed, and perhaps grammar (they recommend EG Plus, and I think Strunks? for writing). There are comp questions for both the history and lit at the end of each chapter, as well as daily quizzes and unit exams. There's a LOT of writing. Very little T/F or fill in the blank. It's almost all essay.

 

I think I'd probably consider the Bible lessons as part of history and not try to assign any separate credit for that.

 

There's very little mapwork included. If want to incorporate some geography, look on the Yahoo group where you'll find lesson plans in the Files section for incorporating a 1/2 credit of geography, along with additional literature. I think it's a 1/2 credit, or maybe it's 1/4? No, it's got to be 1/2 because it covers 12 weeks. That schedule gives you two different scheduling scenarios to choose from.

[Greta Lea]

It wasn't the worst by any means, but kinda dry.

[silliness7]

That sounds like a plan. Thank you so much!!!