We love Notgrass! It's the only history curriculum we use in our homeschool. We enjoyed Our Star Spangled Story for my 4th grade student. The content is interesting, the textbooks are high quality and beautifully done. The recommended literature is great too.

My family is a HUGE fan on Notgrass. I got emotional when we finished OSSS. To this day my boys say this was their favorite and still remember it fondly. It was easy to follow and nothing over top crazy. Perfect speed for my struggling learners and it was easy to make any adjustments for my kids to cater to their needs.

This was my daughter's favorite subject when we used it for second grade. She loves stories and this text tells a lot of stories about people and places. She was able to retain a lot as a result. I liked the length of each section and that we could take turns reading. It wasn't too hard for her to read and the sentences flowed when I read them. (vs some short and choppy young reader texts). My daughter is an above average reader, so it's possible that the text might have been more accessible for her than for an average 2nd grade reader. It is definitely easy for young elementary children to understand when read aloud.

To simply written which bored my kids. The author also emphasized their opinion over facts ie condemns people for being Christians but never let their slaves go free etc. Overemphasized slavery over other important facts even listed slaves by name and jobs they held. I felt it was liberal thinking interweaved with Christianity which isn’t possible. The Israelites had slaves throughout their history and God never condoned it. He only condoned the way they treated their slaves ie they were to be kind to them and not harsh etc. I disagree with slavery but to criticize a Christian in that time period for owning slaves and implying they might not be saved or Christians because of it was too much.