When we used Notgrass World History as our history spine in 9th grade for Mr. Senior 2013, I thought I knew what I wanted at the high school level.
Sharing what worked and what didn’t work for us about some of the history spines we have used so far will hopefully help you to make a better choice for your crew.
Too, I try very hard to be objective about the pros and cons about curriculum when telling you about them. It is of more benefit to tell you about what worked and didn’t work for us and why instead of telling you what I think is a con.
Everybody has different needs at certain times and what may be a con one year may be a blessing the next year.
When we started using Notgrass Exploring World History it was our first official year of high school. Because I knew that Mr. Senior 2013 and I share a common love of history, I thought the integrated written assignments in the history curriculum was a plus feature.
I liked the fact too that it was written in a story format, similar to what we liked about living books and how we had been covering history before. Too, the history spine valued Bible history which is another plus for us.
When Mr. Senior 2013 started using it, he found it very student friendly. It had a pick up and go style that he liked and he really needed very little input from me. This was a good thing for me because as you know when teaching younger children, you want curriculum that requires less teacher prep for your older kids.
The other thing that was a draw, for me anyway, was that it included excerpts from primary sources in a book available by Notgrass called In their Words. It contains original documents, poetry, stories and hymns, which are an important element to studying world history.
However, as with some curriculum you find that after starting it, it requires more work than you want to put into it.
I really didn’t feel like we could cover Bible at a pace that suited me because the whole curriculum felt like a Bible study, which I really didn’t need. Maybe too because I have been so use to adding our own Bible content for many years, I just felt like it was a bit forced.
In addition, at that time I didn’t know what extra reading was required of him because there really wasn’t a list anywhere. The reading was folded into each lesson so unless you used the hunt and peck method, it was hard to look ahead and prepare.
Before I posted this today though, I did take a quick glance at the new edition for 2014 and it looks like they updated their curriculum. A literature list for each unit is now listed in the curriculum.
Something else I realized after getting into was that we wanted a more comprehensive language arts program or at least writing program.
Although Mr. Senior 2013 enjoyed some of the ideas for the topics for writing, he felt like he needed something that was a bit more comprehensive in explaining the mechanics of writing.
It was hard to go from unit studies and living books that we loved in our Beautiful Feet literature to a textbook too.
I could see this program working for a student that maybe didn’t mind a textbook approach and wanted a good overview of history along with Bible study.
Though it wasn’t a keeper for us, I could see that it has real benefits if you use it the way it was intended to be used. Adding in all the quizzes, writing and reading, it was a rigorous and challenging course.
I hope this gives you a glimpse into our year of using Notgrass because there really is no one program that fits everybody.
Hugs and love ya,
Did you miss these posts?
Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.
History Makers Notebooking Pages – Famous Persons from Ancient to Modern – Set 2
How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History
8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically
Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?
Paula Haller says
I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on history curriculum. I also started with beautiful feet many years ago with my daughter and son who are now in their late twenties. Because there is a 20 years age difference between my oldest and youngest child I am still at!!! Along the way I’ve tried some other history programs but I too have returned to Beautiful Feet! We are just finishing up Acient History and I’m planning to use the BF new Medieval history 5-8th next year followed by Early American and World the following year. After that I’ll probably use US and Word. Even though i dont think history needs to be taught chronologically it is just working out that way for us. Keep posting your wonderful thoughts. They are refreshing and helpful!
Tina Robertson says
Hi Paula,
Loved reading about experiences as well. I agree, history should be taught to be loved and that doesn’t necessarily mean chronological order. Thank you for your kind words and don’t forget to use the coupon “upnext” for a discount for your order that I have on the left side bar. Tell your friends too because I love being able to offer these discounts.
Thanks for being here!
Melanie Alford says
Enjoyed your post. I had the same experience with my daughter that used their World History. She also graduated in 2013. I have another high school age child needing world history and I was wondering what you thought you would use with your next child. Charlotte Mason/ Living books style is my preference, it’s just hard to figure out for a transcript!
Tina Robertson says
Oh my goodness Melanie, I think I must have pushed published for next post on this topic and you must have posted this comment about same time. I sure wish I would have saw this first and would have chosen the other post about our living books.
But yes, yes, I just published another post today too about our using Story of the World, but that is my preference too (about living books) and I FOR SURE have something to say for you..lol
We are using Beautiful Feet for a living books approach and that post will come soon!
Yep, Notgrass was just not a good fit for us. But, I will answer your question in detail soon if you got a bit of time!! I will make that my next post on this topic, hopefully by next week.
Congrats too on your “baby” graduating!! Love that age (barring the hormones of course and oh yes, boys have them too..lol)
Sarah says
Thanks for the comments on Notgrass. I like how it is set up, but I don’t think it will work for us. I did look at their literature selections and got some ideas, though.
Thanks,
Sarah
Tina Robertson says
It is set up easy for sure and I am sure it has a great fit for somebody which is why I always like to say why it wasn’t a good fit for us. I think there is very little homeschool curriculum that is flat out “bad”. We just all have different needs and different personalities and this one wasn’t a fit for us either, but I too loved the literature and it was rigorous. So good tips for those looking for something like this.