Exploring America by Ray Notgrass
REVISED - 2008

Exploring America is an American history high school curriculum combining American history, American literature, and Bible. It helps high school students gain a fuller understanding of our nation's past as they read the history narrative, read classic American literature, complete writing assignments, and study what the Bible says about issues and ideas in American history.

• Bible-based. This curriculum presents history from the perspective of faith in God and respect for His Word. Each unit includes a Bible study highlighting spiritual issues related to American history, and each lesson includes a Bible verse.
• Comprehensive. This curriculum helps students understand American history from the European exploration of the 15th and 16th centuries up to recent events, with extensive coverage of the 20th century. Lessons include the 2000 presidential election and the September 11th attacks on America.
• Features classic literature and original documents. While studying the history of America, students read classic American literature, poetry, and historical documents and speeches that teach history in the words of the people who made it. Except for the literature, the required readings are all found in the student text or in the included supplement "American Voices", so you don't have to hunt for hard-to-find books!
• Provides a year of credit in three subject areas. High school students can earn credits for American History, English, and Bible.

This is a unit study approach that is easy to implement, even if you have always used textbooks in the past! There are 30 weekly units, each divided into 5 daily lessons. The daily lessons are written in an engaging, narrative style by Ray Notgrass. His love for history is evident throughout this well-written and organized course. Writing assignments and review questions are thought-provoking - encouraging critical thinking skills. The text also includes maps, charts, and many illustrations.

The Exploring America package includes two-large, softcover volumes with all text, lessons, etc. and the required supplement with reading (as directed in text), American Voices.

Additional literature titles are used in this curriculum and are readily available at most libraries or free online: The Scarlett Letter, Wit and Wisdom From Poor Richard's Almanac, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Davy Crockett: His Own Story, The Adv. of Tom Sawyer, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, Civil Disobedience, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Co. Aytch, Little Women, Humorous Stories and Sketches (Twain), Up from Slavery, Looking Backward, In His Steps, Mama's Bank Account, Christy, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Giver.

Exploring World History by Ray Notgrass

Exploring World History is a high school world history curriculum combining world history, world literature, and Bible. It helps high school students gain a fuller understanding of the past as they read the history narrative, read classic literature, complete writing assignments, and study what the Bible says about issues and ideas in world history. Exploring World History provides historical overview lessons along with focused lessons on key events, concepts, and people. It also includes surveys of daily life and culture. The Bible study lessons allow students to concentrate one day a week on the spiritual implications of what they have been studying.

The Exploring World History Curriculum Package includes:

• Part 1: Creation through the Middle Ages (first semester)
• Part 2: The Renaissance to the Present (second semester)
• In Their Words: Original Documents, Poetry, Stories, and Hymns from World History (assigned readings)

This curriculum presents history from the perspective of faith in God and respect for His Word. Each unit includes a Bible study highlighting spiritual issues related to history, and each lesson includes a Bible verse. It is comprehensive, giving students an overview of world history from Creation to the 21st century. It provides a year's credit in three subjects. High school students can earn credits for World History, English (literature and composition), and Bible.

The history credit involves reading the lessons and the original documents (and answering the questions in the optional Quiz and Exam Book if desired). The English credit involves studying the grammar points (four times per week), completing the writing assignments, and reading the assigned books, as well as the poems, hymns, and short stories in In Their Words. The Bible credit involves answering the Bible Study Questions (mentally, verbally, or on paper) and reading the Bible study lesson for each unit. A considerable portion of the first third of the curriculum is Bible history. These lessons are also included in the Bible credit. Since the course involves three credits, students should expect to spend about three hours per day on it--more or less depending on reading speed.

In addition to the assigned readings from In Their Words, the curriculum also assigns fourteen books (see list below). Most of these books can be found at your local library or free online.

This is a unit study approach that is easy to implement, even if you have always used textbooks in the past! There are 30 weekly units, each divided into 5 daily lessons. The daily lessons are written in an engaging, narrative style by Ray Notgrass. His love for history is evident throughout this well-written and organized course. Writing assignments and review questions are thought-provoking - encouraging critical thinking skills. The text also includes maps, charts, and many illustrations.

The following books are required for completion of Exploring World History: Mere Christianity, The Cat of Bubastes, Julius Ceasar, The Imitation of Christ, Here I Stand, Pilgrim's Progress, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, Heart of Darkness, Eric Liddell: Pure Gold, The Hiding Place, Animal Farm, The Abolition of Man. These titles should be available at your local library or free online.

Exploring World History Curriculum Package Includes Part 1, Part 2, and In Their Words.

Exploring Government by Ray Notgrass

New from the Notgrass Company, Exploring Government is a one-semester high school course that provides a half-credit in government. Lessons cover federal, state, and local government and also contemporary issues in government. Special emphasis is placed on the Biblical basis for government and on the U.S. Constitution. Each of the fifteen units is intended to be studied for one week.

Like their popular history programs, the publisher has done an excellent job organizing the material by clearly outlining what the student is to do each day and each week. The Unit (weekly) Introduction page gives a brief overview of the unit, the lessons in that unit, and a suggestion for an activity that is relevant to that unit. Most of these activities are writing ideas, but some take a different form. The activities are designed to help the student think about and interact with the ideas that he or she is studying.

The following are included in this package:

• Exploring Government, with 75 lessons divided into fifteen units of five lessons each.
• We Hold These Truths, a collection of historic documents, essays, and speeches in American government.

This the best Government course I have seen! The author has done an excellent job of not only explaining how local, state, and national governments work, but also the "why's" behind our system. Students will leave this course with more than just rote knowledge - they will have enough understanding and discernment to be the thoughtful, praying, and involved citizens that will shape our country in the future.