Karen S
Verified Buyer
Feb 14, 2023
I have been very thankful to find that Notgrass supports its older editions by selling PDFs of the support materials. It was so easy to download. Not many curriculums do something like this. It is very helpful for a mom of four, just trying to get by with all the costs of books, etc. Thank you!
Heather C
Verified Buyer
Feb 09, 2023
I love that Notgrass is an easy to use text book style program. It has colorful images and easy to read text. The lessons are organized into Units, with 5 lessons in each Unit. This is a very easy to use curriculum. However, my son and I found it really hard to get through an entire lesson a day because he struggles with reading and understanding the content. Our original plan was to use it for both history and reading/writing. But my son quickly became frustrated with the amount of time it took us to get through everything. I took us about 40-45 min (even though I do a lot of the reading - otherwise it would be hours for him to read it) just to read through the lessons, and by then he was tired of it. That made it hard to do the lesson review, read the story book and do a writing assignment as well. For us, it was very time consuming, making it too overwhelming for him. I knew going into it to expect about 1 1/2 hours each day, and I thought we could do that. But our experience proved different! For some families it might work out just fine, and can be a wonderful way to learn. We finally had to just let ourselves take it really slow. We spend a couple days getting through the lesson and then try to do a review to make sure he got the information presented and that is it. I know we will not get many lessons done this year that way, but I am okay with that.
Response from Notgrass History
Mar 01, 2023
Dear Heather: Thank you for sharing your honest review. We are sorry to hear that using Notgrass History has not been fabulous for your family. Different students and families have different needs and preferences, and that's okay! And it's also okay to change your expectations and do what works for your family. Keep up the great work!
Erica O
Verified Buyer
Feb 02, 2023
I have purchased 2 sets of history curriculum and have been so happy with both of them. All 4 of my children now love learning about History and look forward to our lessons. I’m so thankful that a friend of mine told me about this amazing curriculum! I am also very impressed with the excellent customer service that is provided.
Kirsten B
Verified Buyer
Dec 22, 2022
We received the package very very quickly! We live in a small country town in Australia called Denmark and have been running a homeschool classical curriculum for a year. My children were trilled to receive the books and wait with excitement to begin next year. The quality of the material is excellent and the pictures have beautifully written descriptions. Our children will be thoroughly educated in History - a subject my husband and I love. It will be an exciting learning adventure for the whole family. Thank you for writing the history books!!
tahirah s
Verified Buyer
Dec 07, 2022
We were so excited to find an option for our second graders that focused on our 50 states. Seems a great starting point for this age group. However this textbook falls flatter than a pancake in substance. Forgive me as a jump around between complaints.
There are many overly detailed stories of random uninteresting successful people. Lesson 38 is great example of this where it spends 3 pages discussing a contemporary peanut farmer and his family. I feel these stories would have been best left as a bonus PDF or at the very least, reduced. Our children were so excited to cover Pennsylvania & Pittsburgh because thats where my husband is from. Steel was hardly covered. The Steelers were never mentioned. Lastly, this textbook hardly includes any black figures. We have reached lesson 25 as a group (although I have looked ahead). We had to completely skip page 99 due to an awkward story of a boy named James who learned to smile and laugh in the midst of slavery even though he knew SOMETIMES ensalved people on other plantations got whipped. This page and a half a seemingly fictional story could have better been dedicated to Harriet Tubman who just a page before received literally four sentences about her life’s work. Meanwhile there’s an entire page plus art about a boy who flew a kite across the Niagara River. Between lesson 1 and 25 there are a number of art pieces covered- zero by non-white artist.
All of the supplementary work I have had to compile to bolster this textbook is a shame.
The Atlas Workbook however, is lovely.
There are many overly detailed stories of random uninteresting successful people. Lesson 38 is great example of this where it spends 3 pages discussing a contemporary peanut farmer and his family. I feel these stories would have been best left as a bonus PDF or at the very least, reduced. Our children were so excited to cover Pennsylvania & Pittsburgh because thats where my husband is from. Steel was hardly covered. The Steelers were never mentioned. Lastly, this textbook hardly includes any black figures. We have reached lesson 25 as a group (although I have looked ahead). We had to completely skip page 99 due to an awkward story of a boy named James who learned to smile and laugh in the midst of slavery even though he knew SOMETIMES ensalved people on other plantations got whipped. This page and a half a seemingly fictional story could have better been dedicated to Harriet Tubman who just a page before received literally four sentences about her life’s work. Meanwhile there’s an entire page plus art about a boy who flew a kite across the Niagara River. Between lesson 1 and 25 there are a number of art pieces covered- zero by non-white artist.
All of the supplementary work I have had to compile to bolster this textbook is a shame.
The Atlas Workbook however, is lovely.
Response from Notgrass History
Dec 19, 2022
Tahirah: Thank you for taking time to share your feedback. We appreciate your honesty.
"Our 50 States" is primarily a geography course rather than a history course. We did choose to cover an eclectic mix of people from the past and present, some well-known and many not well-known. We couldn't cover everything in one book, so we did have to make choices about what to emphasize. ("Our Star-Spangled Story" is our elementary U.S. history curriculum that covers different topics, including Sojourner Truth. We have a full lesson on Harriet Tubman in our middle school "America the Beautiful".)
The story about James Deane in Lesson 22 is adapted from a 1937 interview with him when he was 87 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/mesn.080/?sp=9&r=-0.372,0.116,1.81,1.16,0).
We do highlight the Fisk Jubliee Singers in Lesson 32, a Lebanese immigrant in Lesson 34, a Gullah family in Lesson 36, a Seminole family in Lesson 48, an African-American businesswoman in Lesson 80, an Osage ballerina in Lesson 86, a Hopi artist in Lesson 91, a Chinese immigrant in Lesson 96, an Alaska Native in Lesson 100, and a Puerto Rican baseball player in Lesson 104.
We are sincerely seeking to celebrate the positive contributions of many different kinds of people throughout American history and world history. Thanks again for sharing your perspective on how we can do that better.
Mary A
Verified Buyer
Nov 18, 2022
This curriculum has been a life saver for history for our family! It is so beautifully laid out, and easy to follow. My 5th grader loves having the ability to choose from the activities at the end of each lesson. We are excited to have found Notgrass and it has genuinely blessed our family.
About Notgrass History
Notgrass History curriculum uses narrative lessons, original source documents, historical novels and biographies, and hands-on activities to create engaging learning experiences for homeschooling families like yours.
Notgrass History is a Verified Merchant
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