History was never my favorite subject growing up. In fact, it was my least favorite subject when I was in school. I never was good at memorizing places, names, and dates. I couldn’t keep it all straight in my brain. 

As a public school student, we learned from dry, boring text books. We were quizzed on the presidents and the states/capitals. We were quizzed on the US map and causes of the Civil War. Since I didn’t find these topics interested, I learned what I needed to for the test and promptly forgot it all. I want more than that for my kids.

One of the unexpected benefits of homeschooling is the fact that I’m now learning history with my kids. I’m filling in some HUGE gaps I have in my own learning as I read and learn alongside my children. With so many resources available, I don’t have to teach from dry, boring textbooks. I can bring history to life for my kids (and myself). 

Middle School World History

From Adam to Us from Notgrass is an engaging world history program designed for students in grades 5-8. It consists of 30 units (divided into two texts) which are further divided into five daily lessons. We received the following items for the purpose of our review: 

• From Adam to Us Part 1: Creation to Cathedrals – This is the first of two main texts. It contains the first fifteen units covering topics from Creation to the Crusades. 
• From Adam to Us Part 2: Castles to Computers – This is the second of two main texts. It contains the last fifteen units covering topics from the early Renaissance to modern day. 
• Our Creative World – This book contains stories, poems, documents, art and architecture from world history. 
• Map Book – This book contains over 40 maps that students will color and label throughout the course. 
• Timeline Book – This workbook contains timeline pages that cover world history from Creation to the 21st century. Most lessons end with instructions to add information to the timeline book.
• Student Workbook – This spiral-bound workbook is full of activities designed to review each lesson. Inside, you’ll find crossword puzzles, matching activities, fill-in-the-blanks, and more. This book also contains review questions for the literature selections as well as end-of-unit tests. 
• Lesson Review Book – This book contains lesson review questions, weekly tests, and review questions for literature. 
• Answer Key – This book contains, of course, the answers. Here, you’ll find answers for the Thinking Biblically and Vocabulary assignments, lesson reviews, unit tests, student workbook activities, and the timeline book. 

I really like a curriculum that is a multi-tasker. From Adam to Us is just that. As you can see, it covers history, geography, literature, vocabulary, and Bible. That’s a lot to cover in one package. 

I love the structure of the daily lessons. Emma, 7th grade, can work {mostly} independently through this curriculum. She reads the lessons on her own. I try to pre-read and have a few questions on hand to discuss with her when she’s done. If not, I just ask her to tell me an interesting fact or two. 

Then, she is to complete the assignments listed at the end of the lesson. Each lesson is different, but will have several of the following activities to complete: 

• Our Creative World – L20 has her reading an excerpt from The Iliad, for example. 
• Map Book – Label and color a map based on the day’s assignment. 
• Student workbook or Lesson review – Depending on what was involved, some days I had Emma do both books. Some days, I only assigned one. 
• Creative writing – For example, write a journal entry describing xxx’s execution from the standpoint of having witnessed the event.
• Thinking Biblically – This assignment has students reading and discussing passages from the Bible that correlate with the day’s lesson. 
• Literature – There are some fabulous books assigned in this text. Books like The Bronze Bow, The Golden Goblet, and The Chestry Oak bring history to life! 
• Family activities – These are fun activities the whole family will enjoy. Each unit has one. They include making a model of Stonehenge from Rice Krispie Treats, creating a ‘spices of the world’ map, and creating a piece of artwork based on the Northern Lights. Each of these activities is designed to further enhance the topics studied. 

Emma has had a lot of fun working through this book so far. She loves the text and the beautiful pictures. She tolerates reading the poetry and excerpts in Our Creative World. She prefers the student workbook to the lesson review questions, but she agrees that the review questions are great for test prep should you choose to assign the tests. 

We jumped into this book where we were in our other history book which meant we jumped in at the middle of a literature selection – The Fables of Aesop. Since we studied Aesop’s fables earlier this year, we skipped literature during this review period. However, the selections are so good that we will pick them up as we continue moving through this curriculum. 

Moving forward, I intend to finish From Adam to Us with Emma next year. I think it gives a very solid overview of world history. It’s engaging, and she is really enjoying it. I am learning as much from it as Emma is, and I love how everything {literature, Bible, and history} is all intertwined for a well-rounded history experience. 

FTC Disclosure: I received these products from Notgrass History and was compensated for my time. All opinions, however, are mine. I was not required to post a positive review.