erinallport Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Please help! :)My daughter will be starting high school in the next few months, and I am just not sure about what to do for our World History program. I have narrowed it down to 4...after researching just about every program out there. If you have any experience with these programs, please let me know what you loved and what you didn't like about them. We are doing Notgrass for middle school World History and my daughter enjoys it more than some other things we tried. She LOVES reading and writing, and so this is what I keep coming back to for her high school. I love the literature included and that each week she is to write an essay. I also like that it's a simple, one year world history program, and won't take years to do. History Revealed seems like my Ultimate History Program. I love the foundation of it, how it encourages the child to dig deep and study what they are interested in. I love that it's got lots of project ideas and that it covers each topic pretty in depth. I worry though that my daughter isn't a really motivated learner. She loves to read and write, but if she's not engaged in it, she will hand me garbage just to be done. I don't know if she will dive deep or just remain on the surface and do bare minimum to get done. If she approaches it that way, will the whole benefit of this program be lost on her??? I don't yet have any experience with the Classical Historian, other than it sounds great. Cathy Duffy rates it very highly, in her top 102 picks (Notgrass and History Revealed didn't make the list). I love the idea of starting a unit with a question and having her read and research in order to write an essay that makes her really analyze her answer. I also love the idea of doing Socratic Discussions as a main part of her history program. I am in process of learning how to do the Socratic Dialogue and think it's a fabulous way to learn. We LOVED Winter Promise for elementary US history, and so it is always in the back of my mind to try. Their Middle/High school level American History Programs look very intriguing to me (American Crossing and American Culture). I think we learned more in that elementary history class than any other program we have done....but there were many more books in that program than the high school ones. I just can't decide! Please share your experiences!!!! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I too liked the idea of Classical Historian ... but there just wasn't enough substance there for me to feel confident enough to flesh it out. My kids also did not like the vague ambiguity of the assignments. We ditched it very quickly. We too enjoy discussion, but we all wanted/needed something more defined to base our discussions on. If Notgrass is working for her, is there a reason you don't want to continue it? And have you asked your DD what she would prefer? I've found I get a lot more "buy in" from my kids when they look at the options I present to them and incorporate their feedback into my decisions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erinallport Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 Thanks for sharing that about Classical Historian!!!! I did ask her about it today and she says she will do whichever I think is best...I like Notgrass for several reasons, but I wonder if it would be a good thing for her to really learn how to research and learn for herself...which I think History Revealed tries to steer them to. But I also love the literature in Notgrass. Ugh, There are just too many good choices lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 IMO Notgrass was abysmally below level. The Primary Source documents help a lot..but the text reads like a 7th grade level book. There is SO MUCH Bible interwoven, it's just plain annoying and feels like a Bible course instead of a History course. It was so below level, we gave up and just signed up for a dumb online course just to get our state's accredited approval. We figured below level with approval was better than below with none. I feel bad,because I like the Notgrass style, and the textbook is beautiful but the whole course to me just seemed like a 7th grade level course, that they added tons of "stuff" onto in order to bolster the overall picture (timelines, atlas, mapwork, etc.) I have it in the closet though as I am considering using it for my dd for 8th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erinallport Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 I'm debating using Notgrass but adding about a dozen or so more literature books, historical fiction, to beef it up a bit. Do you think that would be good? As much as I am enticed for History Revealed, I just don't see her doing as much with it as I would hope she would...so I would probably feel like she wasn't doing good enough work. We would be using it for 9th grade (US History), and 10th for World... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 Well I guess that depends on your child. Mine just felt totally frustrated by how condescending the writing was. We used the MFW package which beefs it with all the extras and that just seemed annoying to my son. He really wonders why they didn't just write a more challenging book. Have you had your child read all the samples? I think that might help. ;) Maybe some students may enjoy the style of writing and clear simple wording. also on another note if you're thinking of adding tons of stuff to beef it up consider MFW'S World History which used notgrass and adds literature, timeline and mapwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Indeed Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 History is a get it done subject here and Notgrass is what we use. We have History Revealed- but the motivation to do the extra projects just isn't there. They go more deeply in subjects they are interested in/ passionate about- but that's not history for my girls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 ^^ True. Now that we are in high school we would rather get subjects done in an efficient manner. Textbooks are good for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erinallport Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 Thanks everyone!!! I think I have decided to stick with Notgrass as our spine, and add extra literature for an american lit class. She is just a voracious reader and she does seem to enjoy the Notgrass readings. At least in the middle school world history books. I wish she were the kind of student that would run with History Revealed projects, but again, I think reading and writing are just her thing and she will be happiest with that. I did order the Socratic Discussions for History DVDs from Classical Historian and one Take a Stand book just to see if I could (or would want to) pull some of that into our discussions/writing. I have Teaching the Classics and Worldview Detective already and am going to spend the winter learning how to do socratic discussions :) Thanks again!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebastianCat Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 Notgrass does have a literature package that you can purchase to go along with their history courses. You may want to look into that before piecing together your own literature study. MFW uses Notgrass as a spine for Ancient History and World History, but adds their own literature. That is what my 9th grade DS is using this year, and he is enjoying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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