3browneyedboys4me Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 I've been researching High School curricula and just ran across Notgrass. I realize they are not new, but for whatever reason, I've never looked at the program. It looks great! Can anyone share with me their experience using this program? I'm looking at American History for my Freshman and also, the younger history looks pretty good too? Can anyone give me their opinion. This really looks perfect for us! I'm so excited!! Thanks~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 My boys enjoyed Notgrass, but it's not really a full English credit by itself. We supplemented with more vocab/grammar. We also chose not to use the Bible as the credit, but my guys still read the reading. Notgrass is a text (which some don't care for), but I'd use it again. The books they choose to go along with history are nice ones IMO. Mine used American, World, and Gov't. Had Economics been out earlier they'd probably have used that one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningGlory Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 My 9th grade son has used the Notgrass US History texts this year. We liked them; they "fit the bill" for what I wanted...which was a solid American history text with lots of primary source readings. I did tweak the program to fit our needs. DS only did the history portion of the course. He did something else for Bible and literature. He did a writing project with every unit...but I changed the topics quite a bit. He did not do the review questions, but he did use the quiz book...although the quizzes are pretty lame. We liked it enough that my son is going to do the Notgrass Government course this summer. However, we will not use the World History text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3browneyedboys4me Posted April 7, 2013 Author Share Posted April 7, 2013 It sounds like you both were relatively satisfied. I do like that they designed the program for any grade level. I wish MFW did that! I see they are coming to our convention. :) I know where I'll be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 MorningGlory, Are you referring to the required literature package in your statement that Notgrass includes lots of primary source readings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningGlory Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 MorningGlory, Are you referring to the required literature package in your statement that Notgrass includes lots of primary source readings? No, I was referring to the accompanying text American Voices. It has documents, speeches, songs, poems, stories, etc. in it. Here's a link where you can look at its table of contents. http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/American-Voices.html The literature package isn't "required" if you choose to just use the history portion of the program (which is what we did). But if you want to do the whole program as written (history, Bible, and literature), then you would need the lit pack. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 We've used World History and Government here. Both were very "readable" and my high schoolers didn't complain. We used World in conjunction with MFW WHL so we only used it for History. Next year our co-op is using Exploring America for high school US History and America the Beautiful for middle school US History. I like how the books are already scheduled for the middle school and that there are Map and Timeline activities. For high school, we will use it for History but only my ds15 will use it for Lit and Bible as well. I can't see counting it as a full English credit w/out adding in something else like grammar and the Bible credit looked a bit "simplified" to me as well. I'm going to add in more for Bible (just not sure what yet, lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 One doesn't have to buy the lit pack. We found all but a couple of books through our library system. Some had to be obtained via the inter-library loan system, but they were still free. The couple we had to buy were found inexpensively on e-bay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 I plan to add Easy Grammar and a couple Progeny Press guides to count as a full English credit. I also plan to have my dd work on a research paper of sorts, but will probably tie that into the history credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbeym Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 DD is using Gov't this year and said it's easy to understand and follow. They'll both be using the US History in the fall for History and English credit. We're supplementing English with an undetermined grammar curric. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3browneyedboys4me Posted April 8, 2013 Author Share Posted April 8, 2013 I plan to add Easy Grammar and a couple Progeny Press guides to count as a full English credit. I also plan to have my dd work on a research paper of sorts, but will probably tie that into the history credit. Yes, this is what i plan on doing as well. I'm pretty excited about it. I am adding pretty much exactly what you are doing. I think it will be perfect. One doesn't have to buy the lit pack. We found all but a couple of books through our library system. Some had to be obtained via the inter-library loan system, but they were still free. The couple we had to buy were found inexpensively on e-bay. I agree. I actually own a few of them! We've used World History and Government here. Both were very "readable" and my high schoolers didn't complain. We used World in conjunction with MFW WHL so we only used it for History. Next year our co-op is using Exploring America for high school US History and America the Beautiful for middle school US History. I like how the books are already scheduled for the middle school and that there are Map and Timeline activities. For high school, we will use it for History but only my ds15 will use it for Lit and Bible as well. I can't see counting it as a full English credit w/out adding in something else like grammar and the Bible credit looked a bit "simplified" to me as well. I'm going to add in more for Bible (just not sure what yet, lol). I'm going to include the studies my son does on his own and with his youth group. I think that in addition to what they offer will be enough for a credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3browneyedboys4me Posted April 8, 2013 Author Share Posted April 8, 2013 DD is using Gov't this year and said it's easy to understand and follow. They'll both be using the US History in the fall for History and English credit. We're supplementing English with an undetermined grammar curric. Oh, this is good to know. I am definitely adding easy grammar 9th, essay writing, and lit analysis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepoteetteam Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 No, I was referring to the accompanying text American Voices. It has documents, speeches, songs, poems, stories, etc. in it. Here's a link where you can look at its table of contents. http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/American-Voices.html The literature package isn't "required" if you choose to just use the history portion of the program (which is what we did). But if you want to do the whole program as written (history, Bible, and literature), then you would need the lit pack. HTH! So if you just used it as a History and Bible Program, what would you suggest buying? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 It sounds like you both were relatively satisfied. I do like that they designed the program for any grade level. I wish MFW did that! I see they are coming to our convention. :) I know where I'll be! MFW programs are for several grades, but not any grade. e.g. AHL can be for 9th through 12th, but US1 is for 11th-12th. We used Notgrass with MFW. I'm okay with it in 9th-10th, but I think most folks who use it for the upper grades either (a) just wanna get it done, or (b ) add a lot. There is a lot of white space on the page and a lot of added commentary on daily life, Biblical aspects, etc., from Mr. Notgrass, so the amount of actual history seems quite minimal to me -- and I'm not a big history nut. I'll never forget the time my son missed a question so I went to show him where it was taught. After skimming, I had to re-read, searching every word. Finally I found a sentence that said X, Y, and Z were involved in whatever. The quiz expected him to know about Y. *I* expected him to know about Y. Mr. Notgrass had not really taught about Y. And this was just the start of my paying more attention. I was glad we added other materials to Notgrass using MFW. Just another opinion, Julie P.S. I do love his document books, as has been mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakersDozen Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 I just scheduled the first U.S. history book for next year and am very impressed with the writing suggestions. In fact, comparing Notgrass to MFW, I am having my dd (who will use the BJU text from MFW) use Notgrass for her essays as I felt the depth was much better. Notgrass is very light reading but that is what my 16yos needs. We will be heavily supplementing with literature and movies corresponding to the time period we are studying and I will have ds read Never Before in History just to round things out a bit. I'll be using America the Beautiful for the first time as well next year and am very excited about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 My dd used Notgrass American History for 9th grade. I absolutely loved it! She found the text horribly dry and boring. While she had read literally several hundreds books a year before this, I ended up reading the text outloud to her to get through the year. She hated it, so much so that she still hates reading four years later. The following year, she switched to CLE, the furthest she could get from any kind of lit based history. The writing component did not include writing instruction, so you may have to supplement that. My ds used MFW-AHL last year, which uses Notgrass world history, spread out over two years. Several times, we experienced similar to a previous poster, difficulty in finding the answer to a questoin that was never really addressed in the text. We're looking forward to continuing with MFW this year. As I said, I thought Notgrass was wonderful. But I'm 40-something. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.