Oak Meadow 7 history or notgrass or CLE?

[Quercus]

Has anyone seen OM7 recently? I looked at it a few years ago, and did not like the layout or the lack of direction, but from the samples it seems like they may have improved in subsequent revisions? 

I'm also looking at Notgrass but it seems like the writing assignments might be a little...lacking? 

Does CLE's Across The Ages book give writing assignments? 

Any thoughts? We don't like Human Odyssey but I need something along those lines with good writing assignments? I'm running a creative writing class, so I am tapped out coming up with assignments on my own for the time being.

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by Quercus

[Quercus]

Has no one used any of these?

[silver]

Which Notgrass book are you looking at? I've used Adam to Us. Not every lesson even has a writing assignment, and when they do, they aren't really worth doing. Here's an example of two:

Quote

Choose five of the photos in this lesson. Write a brief description of each photo. Under each description write three adjectives that describe the photo. Example:
Picture of Vasco de Gama cross on page 817
tall, erect, lonely

 

Quote

If you could be the founder of a city, where would it be? What would you name it? What major buildings would you build first? What industries would you encourage to come there? Write one or two paragraphs answering these questions and adding any other ideas you have

 

As for the text itself, the book is lovely to look at, but the text can be dry at times, giving a quick summary of things without drawing the student into the material. I like the map work and the source text that is in one of the extra books. The timeline book doesn't seem too helpful to aid with learning. We skip the student workbook because it's busy work. My kids have enjoyed the literature selections, but I wouldn't count on them to teach any extra history. All in all, I like it enough to finish it, but I'm not sure if I'll use it again with my youngest when she's the right age. 

[Quercus]

3 hours ago, silver said:

Which Notgrass book are you looking at? I've used Adam to Us.

 

This is helpful, thank you! I was considering Adam.... but it was getting put further and further back  on the list even before your review. We've had, and abandoned, some of the Notgrass high school texts so I wasn't completely unaware of what they were like going in, but they are always more appealing than they are usable. 

OM and CLE are still strongly drawing me in. I don't know if CLE even has writing assignments and I don't know if this child will do well with OM7's method of throwing assignments out there and letting the student choose. Hmm...

[HazelAnne]

We also use From Adam to Us. My dc really likes it, and has asked to use Notgrass again next year. (Previously we used Story of the World and Veritas Press’ self paced videos- so this is our first time using a traditional text book for history, and I really don’t have anything to compare it to.) My student enjoys the photographs, source text book, and workbook. 
However, I do feel like the writing assignments need to be supplemented, so while we are loving it for history, if you are looking for something strong in writing it might not be a good fit.