iteachmine Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I have been looking at this as an option for American History for my 15dd. For those who have used it, do you find it rigorous enough for your high schooler? Is it teacher friendly? Can you give me a few pros and cons. I like the way it is written from a conservative christian perspective, and incorporates Bible and lit. Any thoughts on the program would be appreciated.:bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 My 9th and 11th graders used it this past year and I was impressed with the scope. However, I'll freely admit I never checked out any other curricula - though I do know how it compares to our ps option (I like Notgrass better - it's far more detailed, yet not overwhelming). I did absolutely no teaching with it... my kids work 100% independently. Notgrass is set up well for this with lesson plans right inside of it before each unit that kids can read/do themselves. Since Notgrass includes English, their essays and writings were graded and looked over by our neighbor - an English prof (PhD) at a nearby 4 year college. She loves the curricula and considers it the best high school homeschool curricula she's seen. (Note - she may not have seen many, but she has seen many homeschoolers come her way via the college.) I did 50% of the grading of other quizzes/tests (hubby did the other 50%). I'm very pleased with the scope... I can't think of any cons, but perhaps those with more of a history background can. My background is math/science. ps Be sure to buy the latest edition - from last year c 2007. I did hear changes (for the better) had been made, but at this point, have forgotten what they said specifically. I bought new last year because of it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grace is Sufficient Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 One of the things I like about it is that the curriculum is pretty flexible. If the student were to read nothing more than the text, it would give the student a pretty good grasp of American History without being terribly challenging. If the student does all the additional reading (the original source documents and speeches) it becomes a very thorough treatment. I would recommend some discussion of the extra documents as well as perhaps beefing up the writing assignments to make them more analytical and thought provoking. (To be clear... this is if you're looking for a challenging course. It's fine by itself, too.) I did add some extra study guides to beef up the literature portion of the study, and although I really liked the way the author examines the history from a Biblical perspective, it is just an extra, and not enough to add a Bible credit... perhaps if a student does all the optional Bible studies... a half credit? I don't know. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 (edited) I remember looking at it a couple years ago. I thought it was "light" compared to the typical textbook a high school student would use for American history. We elected not to use it and did a much more in depth American Lit course as well. However, it might be just the thing if history is not your student's "thing" and you wanted to get the requirement out of the way. Edited June 14, 2009 by Laurie4b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grace is Sufficient Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Did you look only at the text, or also at the source materials in the additional books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Ok, you got me curious about this course considering the previous posts so... I had my two boys take the SAT 2 US History practice test today. We had bought the practice test book a couple of months ago when we thought my oldest might need some of them for his college applications. It turns out his top schools don't require them, so the book would have been useless. This way I got some peace of mind from the expenditure! I should also point out the boys finished the course about 2 weeks ago... and had no idea I was going to give them this test (ie NO review - as there would have been if they were taking the real test...) Notgrass also does not have a cumulative final... nor did I make one up. My 11th grader got a 690 (out of 800) which is in the 72 percentile (top 72% of those taking the test) according to college board. My 9th grader got 720 or 81st percentile. They only got 6 of the same questions wrong (out of 90) - and all of those were considered "hard" ones. Some of the questions they tell me they shouldn't have gotten wrong had they read them carefully... but such is the deal with test taking. I KNOW if I had had them review some they would have done better... but there's your raw data from my source to use or compare as you want. I'm happy enough that I will have my youngest do the program when he's old enough... Mine did the whole program - with the extra readings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I remember looking at it a couple years ago. I thought it was "light" compared to the typical textbook a high school student would use for American history. We elected not to use it and did a much more in depth American Lit course as well. However, it might be just the thing if history is not your student's "thing" and you wanted to get the requirement out of the way. OTOH, my dd who attends a college prep public charter high school used one of those 80-lb $180 history textbooks. They didin't cover nearly all of the chapters, she never brought her book home since she wasn't required to actually read it, and she had no assigned outside reading whatsoever. The only homework she ever had for that class was writing 3 900-word papers which were only required because she was taking the honors class. I was shocked and not happy at all about this particular class. I think she learned more from SOTW. If a student used Notgrass as written, they'd probably get a much better education than a typical ps student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4wildberrys Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Notgrass is anything but 'light"! If used as intended, with all the compositions, extra lit and quiz and exam book---it is quite a challenging course! The one thing it does have in common with a typical school textbook is the dry nature of the history readings---but then when you add in the original source documents and the literature---you have a rich and deep course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Did you look only at the text, or also at the source materials in the additional books? I looked at both. The other texts I looked at also use primary source material--typically more. This is just my opinion, but I did not feel like there was enough American Lit to count it as two courses for sure. If the American Lit was counted as part of the history, I would have been more comfortable with it. It just wasn't what I was looking for in terms of depth. I didn't mean to insult users. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 I looked at both. The other texts I looked at also use primary source material--typically more. This is just my opinion, but I did not feel like there was enough American Lit to count it as two courses for sure. If the American Lit was counted as part of the history, I would have been more comfortable with it. It just wasn't what I was looking for in terms of depth. I didn't mean to insult users. For me, I wasn't insulted. I'm glad you mentioned your thoughts as I had never really compared and it got me wondering. Now that I've had my two take the SAT 2 (practice - without review or preparation) and gotten their results I feel more confident in the program (personally). There is no one program that is going to fit all, so by all means, share your thoughts! When people stop sharing, we all lose... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nchser Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Would all the above comments apply also to Notgrass Government? I was very happy with my find, did my research, read many good reviews and bought a used set. I eagerly showed it to my dh, and his first comment was, "It looks lightweight." I was surprised and let down, but then I realized he was probably expecting a large textbook with small dry print. I pointed out that a typical highschool course would use a large text, but only read parts of it. This course isn't meant to be read like that - it will be read from cover to cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 I can't say if it applies or not. We're going to be doing Notgrass Gov't as a half year course next year... we're going to use the Teaching Company's 3rd edition Economics DVD's for the other half. I know in our public high school, gov't is a VERY lightweight course (designed so ALL kids can pass it since it's required). The higher level classes generally just have to make a paper (or two) a couple pages longer than the rest, but that's it. Most higher academic kids get very bored with the class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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