Story of the World vs Notgrass History (2026): homeschool history curricula compared

Story of the World's four-year ancient-to-modern world history cycle compared with Notgrass's Christian-worldview courses for grades 1 to 12. When each one is the right pick.

Story of the World and Notgrass History are not really competing for the same shelf space. Story of the World, a four-volume world-history series, is the elementary and middle-school chronological sequence that walks children once through ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern history. Notgrass History publishes courses for grades 1 to 4, grades 5 to 8, and grades 9 to 12, and each course page, for example Exploring World History, describes the course as open-and-go and taught from a Christian worldview. For world history it offers From Adam to Us for grades 5 to 8 and Exploring World History for high school, and for U.S. history it offers Our Star-Spangled Story for grades 1 to 4, America the Beautiful for grades 5 to 8, and Exploring America for high school. Notgrass prices on this page are the selling prices on the publisher's product pages in October 2026.

Decision rubric, side by side

Story of the World (Well-Trained Mind Press) wins 1 · Notgrass History wins 2 · Tied on 4

Verdict

In our assessment, the decision comes down to format and worldview: Story of the World is a four-volume chronological world-history series for elementary and middle school; Notgrass publishes separate courses by grade band in U.S. history, world history, government, geography, and economics. In our assessment, neither is the wrong answer for a serious homeschool history sequence.