Notgrass History

Overall Match. Notgrass is an open-and-go, narrative history program taught from a Christian worldview, built around one lesson a day, a list of optional activities, and real literature. The teaching approach is consistent from grade 1 to grade 12. The learning experience is not: elementary is parent-led, play-based, and low-pressure; middle school is a read-and-do course with timelines, maps, writing prompts, and a weekly family activity; high school is a student-directed, writing-heavy year that also earns English and Bible credit.

Best Fit. Christian families who want Bible-integrated history, parents who want a ready daily plan with minimal prep, families teaching several ages from one framework, students who prefer stories to textbooks, and families who want high school history, English, and Bible credit in one package.

Families Often Appreciate A clear daily lesson with assignment lists and an answer key, and no separate teacher's manual Explicit permission to do less: both the elementary and middle school lesson books say students do not have to do every activity and that parents decide Hands-on variety built into every level: songs and dances at elementary, a weekly family activity at middle school, a choice of unit projects at high school A single comprehensive high school year covering three credits A readable narrative style that parents often describe as not dry **

How the Experience Changes by Grade Band (facts are [Publisher] unless marked)

| | Elementary (gr. 1–4) | Middle (gr. 5–8) | High School (gr. 9–12) | |---|---|---|---| | Parent involvement | High. Parent reads aloud or the child reads; parent chooses activities and leads crafts, songs, and oral review | Moderate. A parent may have a younger or struggling student listen to read-alouds, or let a strong older student work independently; parent chooses activities, supervises family activities, and uses the answer key. Siblings can hear lessons together and receive different assignments | Low–moderate. Student reads and follows instructions independently; the introduction has the student read each unit introduction with a parent and discuss project choices and drafts with a parent | | Student independence [Judgment] | Low | Moderate | High | | Daily workload | Light and flexible: three or five days a week; a younger child might do one or two activities | Under 30 minutes to read; up to about 1.5 hours with all activities; one lesson per day, five days a week finishes in 30 weeks, four days in 38 | Highest of the three, because three subjects are bundled. Each day's list is short (lesson reading, a primary-source excerpt, literature chapters, memory work, optional review), but the weekly project and literary analysis add up | | Hands-on activity | Highest: songs, dances, pretending, building, crafts, recipes; one optional project per unit | High: one family activity per unit (art, crafts, recipes, games, parties, a play, a dance such as the Virginia Reel); map study and a 150-entry timeline | Moderate: three project choices per unit (writing, models, cooking, field trips, volunteer work, video, interview); daily work is mostly reading and writing [Judgment] | | Assessments | No tests needed; three oral review questions per lesson; unit review page optional | Optional workbook or Lesson Review with a test for each of 30 units | Optional Student Review Pack with daily review, a quiz per unit, and exams every five units; the credit description counts them | | Lesson structure | 3 lessons per unit; narrative text, then a box of activity ideas | 5 lessons per unit, each with an end-of-lesson activity list. Each unit has one lesson of five content types (events, God's wonders, landmarks, biography, daily life) | 5 lessons per unit: four history lessons plus a Bible study lesson, with a Bible memory passage and project choices | | Writing demand | Drawing or short writing by ability, talked through with a parent | Vocabulary, Thinking Biblically, and creative writing assignments each appear two or three times per unit; the sampled From Adam to Us lessons asked for writing in nearly every lesson | A project each unit (writing at least six times, 300–500 words) plus a 2,000–2,500-word research paper | | Credits | U.S. history | History, geography, literature (no credit stated) | History, English, and Bible |

Consider Another Option If You want a secular or worldview-neutral history program. You want discussion- or inquiry-led history rather than reading, assigned activities, and review. You want built-in graduated practice, retesting, or required mastery checkpoints. Review is optional and not mastery-gated. Your student finds heavy reading or writing draining, especially at high school **. You want a lighter, history-only high school course; the course is built as a three-subject year, though the publisher says assignments can be adjusted. You want one course to feel the same at every age.

Something to Consider Independence builds with age. A teen can run the high school courses largely alone; elementary and early middle school are parent-led. Hands-on variety is real at every level, but physical movement is limited. Songs, dances, pretending, and building are concentrated in elementary and in middle school family activities. High school adds a project menu, but daily work is mostly reading and writing. Optional does not mean absent. At high school, the review pack is optional in the course introduction, but the publisher's credit description counts quizzes and exams. Decide up front how you will handle credit and grading. Each additional child needs their own consumable books. The two world history courses differ: From Adam to Us stays whole-world throughout; Exploring World History gives more time to the Middle East and Europe, with special units on Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Some samples reviewed were from earlier editions (Exploring World History 2014, From Adam to Us 2016), so check the current edition's sample pages before buying.