Notgrass World History

[mom31257]

I'm trying to think ahead to high school because dd is entering 8th grade. A friend of mine really likes Notgrass. I think I would like it, but World history is only one year. I'd really prefer to do it in 2 years and go more in depth. One year just doesn't seem to be able to do it justice. Is there a way to do it and justify 2 credits?

[Donna A.]

I'm trying to think ahead to high school because dd is entering 8th grade. A friend of mine really likes Notgrass. I think I would like it, but World history is only one year. I'd really prefer to do it in 2 years and go more in depth. One year just doesn't seem to be able to do it justice. Is there a way to do it and justify 2 credits?

 

MFW uses Notgrass as its main spine in years 1 and 2. They do exactly what you said you'd prefer. Check out their Ancients and World History programs here: http://www.mfwbooks.com/highschool.html

 

I originally was going to use just Notgrass, but decided to go with MFW instead. Why? Well, the Notgrass yahoo group does have a schedule in its files that you can use to add 1/2 credit of geography to the program, and I had printed it out and was planning to do that. However, I would've had to buy more books for that... then I needed to get some sort of study guide for Bible because like MFW, I wanted my dd to read through the entire OT cover to cover, but wanted a study guide to help with that (Notgrass only has portions of the Bible schedule, not the whole thing)... then I needed to get something to help with writing skills, and me teaching those writing skills.... Anyway, by the time all was said and done, I would've ended up spending as much money as if I'd just bought MFW to begin with, and would've had to figure out how to schedule it all, too.

 

MFW does use some of the same literature titles that are scheduled in Notgrass, but not all. (They add some other titles here and there.) And since Notgrass is spread out over two years, you'll see some of the lit titles from Notgrass in year 2 rather than year 1.

 

We chose to skip the Rick Warren book.

 

There are also some additional book titles suggested in the manual (MFW) for those who want more.

[mom31257]

Thanks, I will check it out.

[Denise in NE]

I did this with my girls over the last two years. We ditched both the literature and Bible portions of Notgrass, and used the Famous Men series (Greece, Rome, Middle Ages, and Renaissance) to flesh the history out. We also used the Greenleaf literature programs (Ancients for year one and Medieval for year two) to replace the literature portion of the Notgrass books. WARNING: There are not answer keys" for the Greenleaf books. They are designed so that mom and children work through them together.

 

I did contemplate using MFW, but chose this route instead. I am pleased with the results and would do it again.