kentuckymom Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 So, in case you can't see my siggie or, you know, you don't follow all of my threads because you think I'm awesome.... in summary, this is my first year homeschooling my 6th grader, who is coming out of public school. Last year he studied American History in school and discovered a historical graphic novel series he loved, both of which gave him a passion for history. I love history, and I was excited about teaching him. However, we're starting our 4th week, and we're not passionate about what we're doing.... I decided to start with a one year survey of World History, and chose Notgrass From Adam to Us. It's a beautiful textbook, the illustrations are lovely, and it seems to provide a decent general overview of the sweep of world history, but..... We only kinda, sorta like it. I've already ditched all of the vocabulary work and most of the creative writing. The Biblically thinking sections have so far been uninspiring as well. Plus, even though I thought I liked the idea of getting a Christian perspective on history, this book is so Christian it can get annoying. Every section just has to end in a Bible verse, whether or not it's actually relevant (I presume the author thinks it is). I keep hoping it will get better, and we are liking Unit 3 better than Units 1 and 2, which focused on a very literal reading of the early chapters of Genesis which I don't agree with, but even this unit is just okay. The thing is, though, I spent good money on this program and we already changed Math programs, so I'm not eager to tell DH I want to change one more thing. Any suggestions on how we can make it work for us, or on a cheap or free alternative? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Maybe you can do the big history project over three years 6th-8th? 2nd last post on this thread has a plan for 7th/8th http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/543528-anyone-using-big-history-project-for-middle-school-and-like-to-give-me-a-review/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milknhoney Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I've not used that particular curriculum but I have had the experience of paying a lot of money for a curriculum that I ended up not liking too well. Thankfully, due to this forum, I discovered that with the purchase of an additional book, I was able to make the program work a lot better. The only advice I can give you in this situation is simply that you could spend an endless amount of money buying curriculum after curriculum trying to find the perfect thing. So I would say, decide what you like about Notgrass and keep doing that. Ditch the stuff you don't like and replace it with something else. Hopefully there's another $10 something out there that you can buy to replace whatever aspect you ditched. Vocabulary and creative writing doesn't sound essential to the learning of history to me. If you can stand to make it through the text and learn the historical facts, that is what counts. If you decide to ditch it altogether but don't want to buy a new curriculum, there's always finding a good booklist and just have him read through them. Have him outline or write a summary of each book. I tried this last year with my son, using DK History of the World as our spine, and it didn't work out as well as I had hoped. But I think that largely due to the fact that my son really doesn't care for history. So in his case, reading the textbook and answering the questions is the most painless way to get it done. But if your son has a passion, then maybe ditching the textbook altogether and just reading the literature is what is going to work. I have found Christine Miller's book All Through the Ages invaluable as a book list, sorted by historical period and grade level. For free I also like Guest Holllow's History Shelf. There's a free American History curriculum on that site as well, but it's really geared toward earlier than 6th grade. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 You could have your son read a Child's History of the World (Hillyer) alongside the Notgrass readings. Perhaps coordinate the readings to try to match them up by time period if you are motivated. CHOW is a highly entertaining, world history narrative overview which helped start my son out with a love for history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockhopper Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 (edited) I understand your perspective exactly. I've actually used Notgrass for middle school US history and now we're starting From Adam to Us. Notgrass got annoying -- it felt light, non-cohesive and *too* Christian. However, it offered some important positives for us: My very visual daughter really appreciates the photographs and artwork. She can and does read the text herself, and then does the workbook questions, which is really good practice for her in careful reading for content and comprehension. But having done it for US history, I knew it just didn't offer *enough* overarching.... timeline?... of history. So we are intentionally splitting up the one-year program into (at least) two. Alongside Notgrass, she listens in to CHOW with her younger sib. (Her choice; I also offered her - and may require by next year - reading and/or listening to SOTW). And I'm really pondering the Great Courses "The Fertile Crescent to the American Revolution" for some visual/lecture type of instruction. (I know this seems like quite a list but remember I'm spreading it out!) And with younger sib, we're doing the fun hands-on things our family always does as we work through world history. So we're embarking on our third time through making papyrus, and we'll mummify an orange, and make togas and mosaics and... We also have a standard list of read-alouds we do (mostly drawn from Sonlight) like Detectives in Togas and Mara, Daughter of the Nile. All those things *really* bump the fun factor and make it meaningful. (Don't forget about field trips either!) Edited August 30, 2016 by Rockhopper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted August 30, 2016 Author Share Posted August 30, 2016 Thanks for the advice so far, everyone! I think what I need to do is take what I like from Notgrass, leave the rest, and figure out what we can add in to make it more fun. We own a copy of CHOW, so maybe I'll try out having him read relevant parts of that. I may add in some historical fiction to our morning time reading. I think I may add in some projects too. Any ideas for sources for fun projects? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Can you have a themed history party with some friends over, historical-ish snacks, play some related games, and watch a historical movie? (In our family, the love of history comes from good historical fiction, history parties, and as many field trips as we can possibly squeeze out of our budget.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Maybe you can add in lessons from Read Like A Historian. It's not complete, but their picks for documents and questions/topic ideas are often fascinating. (and it's free, you just need to set up an account) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Selling an expensive book can make switching a lot more palatable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 If you don't like it, don't bother using it. I've learned my lesson about trying to plod through stuff we didn't like. Honestly, in 6th grade, you don't need a Grand Plan for history. If your son has developed a passion for history, just let him follow it. Let him choose what he's interested in, and assist him in finding interesting resources to complement the subject. At one point my son read read an entire series of graphic novels about the Greek myths. He learned more about them than if I'd had a Curriculum for Learning About Greek Myths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted August 30, 2016 Author Share Posted August 30, 2016 Maybe you can add in lessons from Read Like A Historian. It's not complete, but their picks for documents and questions/topic ideas are often fascinating. (and it's free, you just need to set up an account) These look good, thanks! I'm going to try out one about Egyptian Pyramids today and see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrulySusan Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I posted a complaint a couple of weeks ago on a thread here about Notgrass world history and got a reply from John Notgrass that the materials could be returned for a refund. Maybe you could return your stuff? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Here's my take. If you quizzed any of the women here, you would find that most if not all of us have bought curriculum we hated. I am in my 12th year homeschooling and I bought something I hated just recently. For a first year homeschooler, do not beat yourself up about this. If you can afford it, sell/ return the stuff you have and try something else. It sure beats having to go through a year with a curriculum you don't like using. And to further muddy the water, you don't want to have a year where you feel like you failed and it was only because of a curriculum that didn't work for you. Have you looked at Sonlight? They have a history program that is world history with historical novels (http://www.sonlight.com/GC5.html). You could buy an instructor's guide used off of homeschoolclassifieds.com and get most of the books from the library. Someone is even selling an almost complete core for less than $200. Just a thought. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Notgrass Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I decided to start with a one year survey of World History, and chose Notgrass From Adam to Us. It's a beautiful textbook, the illustrations are lovely, and it seems to provide a decent general overview of the sweep of world history, but..... We don't want anyone to be stuck with Notgrass if it's not working for you. We understand that our curriculum is not the best fit for every family. Here's our return policy: http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/terms-conditions.html We ask you to return the books within a month or so after you start using the curriculum (not after purchase, as long as its the current edition). Even if you've started writing in the consumable books, you can get a refund, too. (Just return the cover of the consumable books and recycle the inside pages to save shipping.) You will have to pay for return shipping. Otherwise, you'll get a full refund of your original purchase price for the books. All the best, John 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted August 30, 2016 Author Share Posted August 30, 2016 (edited) Wow! I'm super impressed by the Notgrass return policy and also the personal reply. They really stand behind their products! That said, I had a talk with Squirrelboy this afternoon, and we've decided to stick with Notgrass as our spine. He said that, now that we're into periods of history that are reliably dated, he's enjoying the varied overview the lessons provide. We're ditching the Notgrass timeline in favor of our own Book of Centuries (I was having him fill out both, feeling obligated to use the one that came with the curriculum, but I really prefer making our own). We'll use the map book as a resource and do some of the map work. We'll use the workbook for oral review. We'll add more historical fiction, using the lists from Sonlight G and H as inspiration. Once every couple months, Squirrelboy will choose something we've learned about and complete a project of his choice about it. I'll also look around for field trip opportunities, although it seems to me that world history field trips are harder than American history field trips (or the history of whatever country you happen to live in). It's not as if we can go to Egypt and see the pyramids. eta: I really liked the idea of the Reading Like a Historian lessons, but the lesson I tried today was a total flop with Squirrelboy. It was just too much like the kinds of things they did to prepare for standardized testing in school. I think those skills are valuable and I want to reintroduce them at some point, but now is not the right time. Edited August 30, 2016 by kentuckymom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschickie Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I really love Mystery of History. You can often find copies of it used or new the first edition is usually around $35-36 which is well worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theelfqueen Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 My sons (6th and 10th grade) both came to me this week to complain about their history.... and I'm a high school history teacher by background... but somehow I just managed to dump them into a rutted and boring path.... we're working on improving it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted August 30, 2016 Author Share Posted August 30, 2016 My sons (6th and 10th grade) both came to me this week to complain about their history.... and I'm a high school history teacher by background... but somehow I just managed to dump them into a rutted and boring path.... we're working on improving it! Glad I'm not the only one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedwigtheowl Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 I love a History of US. It is very well-written and illustrated and you can use it on it's own or as a launch-pad for projects. It reads like a story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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