N is for... Notgrass

Those who have talked to me in person about homeschooling, particularly if the conversation turned to history curriculum, probably know that I am a fan of the Notgrass Company's products.  Several years ago I was looking for a History curriculum for my high school student, and a homeschool mom in my local support group showed me Notgrass's Exploring America and Exploring World History.  Then she told me that each of those courses is worth three credits! One each in History, Bible, and Literature.  I loved the idea and when I came home and told Harrison about it, all he needed to know was this:

          One course = Three credits.

Sold!

I have now had my two oldest boys do both Exploring America and Exploring World History and it's been a great experience.  Now, neither one of them are or were very excited about reading, so I cut the list of required novels about in half and awarded a half credit for Literature each year.  We didn't do nearly all of the writing assignments either, but chose to use the Comprehension Questions and Quizzes.  This approach has worked well with Harrison and Spencer, and in a few more years I'll be able to adjust it for Landon and then Kennady.

     

This coming school year I won't have any students doing Notgrass high school courses, but Landon and Kennady will be working on the new middle school curriculum, America the Beautiful.  I am really looking forward to it!  And since no students will be needing those high school books.... I will probably read them myself.  I found myself distracted by reading it many, many times when I was supposed to be grading or previewing which assignments we'd use in an upcoming unit.



Also, I bought one of the Unit Studies at convention this year.  I thought it would be fun to follow the Summer Olympics with a study guide.



Yeah, I really like Notgrass.

Do you have a favorite History resource?  Leave a comment and let me know!

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