Notgrass History has been such a delight for us this year. The previous two years I have homeschooled, we have done The Good and the Beautiful history. It was ok. We got through it. We enjoyed the read alouds and the audio story that went with it. We didn’t enjoy the long, uncolorful lessons with very little pictures. It was far from being kid friendly. Our experience with Notgrass History has been very opposite. It was a delight.
Textbook
Colorful pictures on every page are so important to me. Although I realize it is not essential for learning, this year it has made history way less boring for my family. I enjoyed gathering my children around me and reading to them. It has been helpful to be able to show them the pictures that are so plentiful as we read.
Student Workbooks
Another thing I really enjoyed was that the colorful student workbooks. I know it might be a little more costly compared to The Good and the Beautiful printable workbooks. However, it was so worth it for me. I am so busy teaching our four children. It already takes me so much time just to get through all the subjects. It was so helpful to grab the four workbooks and go. I also appreciated that in many of the workbook pages there was a coloring idea for younger kids or the option of a writing prompt.
Music
Music, dancing, and songs are a part of this curriculum that we have really enjoyed. The authors of this curriculum really did a lot of research to find many songs that were song throughout United States history. My family has really enjoyed these songs. Many of them we had never heard before. Other we had heard but didn’t know the background behind the song. In each song there is a very short paragraph that describes what the song is about. The history and the songs themselves were very enjoyable.
Read Aloud Books
This curriculum also comes with books to read aloud to your children. We really enjoyed the read alouds that came as part of the curriculum. They were well picked and taught values that my family tries to live by.
Crafts and Timeline
Crafts and timelines are other parts of this curriculum that we just haven’t used. Although I bought the timeline book and the crafts are included in the textbook, we just haven’t got around to these. There are many options for crafts. There are also a multitude of ideas of how to incorporate playing with legos into the history. I’m sure if I told my kids about this and gave them the opportunity to do it, they would love it. However, it’s just not something I want to do right now. We also go to a homeschool co-op where we can get our art needs met.
Why are we switching to Biblioplan?
With all of these wonderful things that we have loved about this curriculum, you might be curious to know why we are switching to Biblioplan next year. One of my children is going into 7th grade and the others are still in elementary school. I really want to teach my children medieval history and have it be age appropriate for each of my children. I needed a curriculum that has workbooks that are geared to different ages. Unfortunately the Notgrass History that focuses on World History is a little to advanced for my younger children. Biblioplan has different ways to gear the information to different ages and the subject particularly of learning about Romans that I want to study next year. However, it is definitely with sadness that we step away from Notgrass for now. There is a chance we might pick it up later, but for next year Biblioplan just fits are family better.
You should try this!
I am not being paid in any way for this review. I have not contacted the Notgrass company other than purchasing their history to use with my children. Having said this, I highly recommend if you want to learn about the United States you try their amazing Star Spangled Story Unit. As I have said it was an absolute delight for our family.