Notgrass History

We are so close to finishing our first year with Notgrass History. This year my freshman have been completing the World History program.
What I love:
It is NOT teacher intensive (this could be why my dislikes are dislikes)
It integrates Bible
Includes intensive questioning that make the kids think and apply
Great Literature
Grammar points
Includes writing ideas to incorporate it with the History
Friday's or the 5th day is Bible Study and intensive
Includes living documents for study
Is written in a way that is interesting!

Since this is an honest opinion and I've not been asked to give my opinion for any compensation I'd like to cover what I am not liking about this program for my children.

What I do not like:
While the literature is great, it's very heavy reading for a freshman
There is not a lot of  "literature discussion"
While writing is included, I didn't feel there was a great writing support for the parent or child. (It's kind of an on your own thing)

Not much to not like, right?

I suppose if you had the time and you put forth the effort you would find my dislikes are not really anything more then personal to our homeschool.

All in all I love the curriculum. My kids are loving the curriculum. The content and quality far outweigh my not so excitedness (is that a word?) of the literature portion.

I do highly recommend this company and their products. It's a small homeschool business compared to the big wigs and I love supporting them. They are real and available. I love it!

What we are doing for our Freshman Year

It's hard to believe as I type this that I have two freshman. It means we are only a few years away from completing this journey with them. Does learning ever end? It hasn't for me. I'm constantly repeating school. Thanks to homeschooling I think I've finally figured out that 1+1=2, in theory, unless you change what the number 1 stands for in that case it throws my whole theory out. Oh well! Maybe by the time Rebecca is a Senior I'll get it. :)

So, I promised yesterday I would write what we are doing for Highschool this year. It's evolved quite a bit since finding Easy Peasy Homeschool. Did I mention how much I LOVED all her links and direction. I've never met this woman, but if I do I will hug her! This has revolutionized our year.

So stay with me, I'm going to go by subject, tell you what we have done so far and what we are doing now. In a few cases its simple, in a few it's a little over the top to follow.

We will start easy!

Math - Math U See (I love the old versions)
Kahn Academy for explanations, videos and practice when needed.

History - We LOVE Notgrass World History! In all honestly I've not looked anywhere else for history for these kiddos. Not to say I wasn't looking before I found this but it's just perfect for my kids!

So, now it's going to get a little tricky

Literature - World Literature
We are using Notgrass World History which also comes with a literature program. It is great literature BUT, we haven't found a huge discussion on the literature. I felt they needed a bit more. After all we have been following Adam Andrews Teaching the Classics up until now. WHICH I LOVE!! Nothing will replace him, however with my 5th grader still needing a lot of my attention literature just wasn't going how I wanted.

So.....
Easy Peasy to the rescue! We followed her link to GA Virtual School for 9th grade Grammar and Literature.
It's been a win win for us.
And to find SAS Currciulum Pathways (which is FREE to sign up for) and see all the resources we have to fill in.....it just doesn't get any better.

Just to be clear we are still reading the literature from Notgrass World History AND completing this online course with GA Virtual.

Now, on to one of the trickiest of subjects for us.

Science - We are doing Biology this year.

We started the year with Biology 101 and LOVED LOVED it! My freshman devoured it, literally. We were done with it quite fast. We were following the accredited version of this course and instead of using library books as they suggest we were using Apologia Biology and The world of Biology by John Tiner. We still finished early. Like I said, they devoured it. I have no doubt it's due to the Biology 101 course. They are still telling everyone how much they loved it.

 So, I'm trying to figure out how to make this course keep stretching. After all they are suppose to have a full 180 hours in order to count as a credit. Sigh.... WAIT.....here comes Easy Peasy again! I have told you lately how much I love them?
I've checked out a few of her Biology recommendations and I'm so excited.
First we have Biology 101 from the Education Portal
Next we have Biology from GA Virtual
Finally we have SAS Curriculum Pathways

Can you believe all there is on Biology for FREE! Interactive educational whoop de doooo!

Thank you Easy Peasy for showing us the way!

Bible
Now my kids do some intense Bible Study with Notgrass History AND Awana AND Bible Study. Not to mention our fantastic co-op class on God's Heart for the Nations.

Art
They are also completing an Art History Course at co-op with  Meet the Masters!

Music
Just so you don't think I'm not doing enough with them.....hahahha.....they were also just accepted into our local Youth Orchestra.

Did I mention we are trying to fit in Institute  for Excellence in Writing? Looks like it might be a co-op class soon so I'm slacking in that area!