From Adam to Us (Notgrass)

From Adam to Us is Notgrass History's one-year world history and literature course for grades five through eight, running from Creation to the present day in 30 units of five lessons each and taught from a Christian worldview.

Last updated: 2026-10-06 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Narrative lessons with a primary-source collection, assigned literature, and optional review books
Worldview	Christian worldview, per the publisher; no formal statement of faith
Grades	5-8, per the publisher's course page
Formats	Print books (Curriculum Package), a digital download, and an audio supplement sold separately
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	3
ESA-common	Notgrass History lists purchasing details for programs in 15 states
Accredited	Not stated on the publisher's pages
Publication history	Notgrass History's About page dates the start of its curriculum development to 1999. From Adam to Us has a first edition dated 2016, with a digital version released in installments in 2015, per the editions page
Website	shop.notgrass.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	150 lessons with maps, a primary-source collection, and assigned literature
Ease of teaching	4	Notgrass says all instructions are in the main lesson text, and describes the course as open-and-go with minimal parent prep
Content quality	4	Narrative lessons plus Our Creative World, a collection of historic documents, with footnotes and updated spelling in some selections
Flexibility	3	Designed as one school year of 150 lessons; assignments are optional and Notgrass says some families spread the course over a longer period
Value for money	4	Curriculum Package at $125.00 (October 5, 2026); Notgrass says the course can serve as all or part of a family's literature, writing, vocabulary, art, handwriting, and Bible learning
Worldview scope	2	Notgrass says all of its curriculum is written from a clearly Christian perspective
Visual/design	4	Notgrass describes the lessons as richly illustrated with color photographs and maps, and Our Creative World is a full-color hardcover
Support resources	3	Answer key available as a free download, a Bonus Downloads page of assignment checklists and a grading chart, and an audio supplement sold separately

Who the publisher is

Notgrass History states that it exists to glorify God by producing materials centered in His Word that help parents train their children to honor God with heart, soul, and mind. The About page's "Our Story" passage, signed by Ray and Charlene Notgrass, says that in 1999 they began to combine their homeschool experience with a love of history to develop Bible-based, easy-to-use homeschool curriculum. The same page describes Ray Notgrass as the president of the publishing company and a lead curriculum author, and Charlene Notgrass as overseeing curriculum development at Notgrass and a lead curriculum author.

Notgrass's Digital Download page says From Adam to Us is by Ray and Charlene Notgrass, and the title page of From Adam to Us Part 1 credits Ray and Charlene Notgrass. According to its title page, Our Creative World, the course's collection of historic documents, is edited by John Notgrass.

From Adam to Us is a middle school course in a lineup that Notgrass sells for grades one through four, five through eight, and nine through twelve. Its high school world history course is Exploring World History. Notgrass's FAQ comparing the two says the courses complement one another, that From Adam to Us maintains a whole-world focus throughout, and that Exploring World History spends more time on the Middle East and Europe, with special units on Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Notgrass's scope and sequence page says it generally advises against studying the same subject two years in a row, and gives world history with From Adam to Us in eighth grade and again with Exploring World History in ninth grade as an example.

Notgrass says all of its curriculum is written from a clearly Christian perspective and includes Scripture quotations connected to the topics studied. In its statement-of-faith FAQ, the publisher says it has no formal statement of faith, believes in the inspiration and authority of the Bible, has no denominational bias or agenda, and generally quotes the New American Standard Bible.

The core pedagogy

Notgrass says the lessons are written in a narrative style and richly illustrated with color photographs and maps. The course has 30 chronological units with five lessons each, completed in one school year at one lesson per day for 150 days. According to the Curriculum Package page, it includes From Adam to Us Part 1: Creation to Cathedrals, Part 2: Castles to Computers, Our Creative World, the Map Book, the Timeline Book, and the Answer Key. The introduction says each Part has seventy-five lessons for one semester, with Part 1 beginning in the week of Creation and continuing through the time of the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, and Part 2 running from the days of castles to modern times.

The Student Workbook and Lesson Review are optional. The Student Workbook is a collection of crosswords, word searches, matching, and other handwork activities with literature review questions and unit tests, and the Lesson Review offers daily lesson review questions, literature review questions, and unit tests. The introduction says Notgrass recommends choosing one of the two, though a student can complete both.

Signature mechanics: (1) Five lesson categories in every unit: Our World Story, God's Wonders, World Landmark, World Biography, and Daily Life, per the course page. (2) Biblical history placed in historical context: Notgrass's FAQ on Bible coverage says From Adam to Us includes lessons that place events from Biblical history in their historical context, along with Thinking Biblically assignments. (3) A whole-world focus, as the comparison FAQ describes it. (4) Optional review books with unit tests, per the introduction.

A day in the life

Notgrass says students can read the lessons on their own or have them read aloud, and estimates that most students need 45 to 90 minutes per lesson, depending on how many assignments are chosen. According to the introduction, each unit opens with an introductory page that lists the unit's lessons, names the literature title for the unit, and shows a world map with a pin for each lesson's location. The introduction adds that each lesson ends with a list of assignments, drawn from readings in Our Creative World, Map Book and Timeline Book assignments, Student Workbook and Lesson Review pages, Thinking Biblically, vocabulary, creative writing, and reading in the literature, and that students are not necessarily expected to complete all of them.

The ten-book Literature Package is read in assigned units, for example The Golden Goblet in Units 3 through 5 and The Bronze Bow in Units 9 through 11. One lesson in each unit adds a Family Activity, and the introduction lists arts and crafts, recipes, and games as examples.

What they do exceptionally well

Our Creative World. The shop page describes a full-color hardcover of 160 pages that collects short stories, poems, songs, letters, diary entries, and speeches plus images of art and architecture. The introduction says the selections are original source documents from different time periods and many parts of the world, with footnotes and updated spelling in some. The sample table of contents lists, for example, Pliny the Younger's letter to Calvisius, Martin Luther's letter to Katherine Luther, and Johann Sebastian Bach's letter to Georg Erdmann.

Whole-world scope. Notgrass says the course keeps a whole-world focus throughout. The course page gives the Tower of Babel, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the early church, the invention of the printing press, and the fall of Communism in Europe as examples of Our World Story lessons, and the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, and the moai statues of Easter Island as examples of World Landmark lessons.

Format options. Notgrass sells an audio supplement with recordings of the 150 lessons (about 30 hours 40 minutes), which does not include the lesson assignments, the Our Creative World selections, or worksheets, and which refers to the hundreds of photographs and illustrations in the printed text. It also sells a digital download of the course.

What they do poorly

A single worldview throughout. Notgrass says all of its curriculum is written from a clearly Christian perspective, and the course page describes the course as covering world history from Creation to the present day, taught from a Christian worldview.

Review material and literature are sold separately. Notgrass says the Curriculum Package does not include any review or test material or the recommended literature. Because students write in the Map Book, Timeline Book, Student Workbook, and Lesson Review, Notgrass says families teaching more than one child can buy extra copies of those books as needed.

Source documents may need adult help. The introduction says the Our Creative World selections use vocabulary and sentence structure that may be unfamiliar to a student, and that a child may still need a little help understanding them.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick From Adam to Us if: you want a one-year world history course for grades five through eight taught from a Christian worldview and beginning with Creation; you want lesson instructions built into the lesson text rather than a separate teacher's manual; you want primary-source readings and assigned literature in the same course; you want an audio version of the lessons; you plan to use one course with more than one child in grades five through eight.

• Skip From Adam to Us if: you want a world history course that is not written from a Christian perspective or that does not begin with Creation; you want a course designed to align with state or College Board standards, which Notgrass says it did not design its curriculum to do; you want a high school course, for which Notgrass offers Exploring World History; you already use Story of the World or Mystery of History and do not need another chronological world survey.

Cost honest assessment

As displayed on the Notgrass shop on October 5, 2026, the From Adam to Us Curriculum Package is $125.00. It includes Part 1, Part 2, Our Creative World, the Map Book, the Timeline Book, and the Answer Key; Notgrass says it does not include review or test material or the recommended literature. The Student Workbook is $14.00, the Lesson Review is $12.00, and the Literature Package of ten works is $111.00. The Bundle, which includes the Curriculum Package, Literature Package, Student Workbook, and Lesson Review, is $246.00. The Digital Download is $151.00, and a Digital Download (Consumables Only), which includes the Map Book, Timeline Book, Student Workbook, Lesson Review, and Answer Key but not the lessons or Our Creative World, is $46.00. The Audio Supplement is $19.00. The Answer Key is listed at $6.00 and is also available as a free download.

ESA eligibility notes

Notgrass says that as a company it takes no position for or against state funding programs. Its FAQ pages for Alabama CHOOSE, the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account, Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts, Florida Step Up for Students, the Georgia Promise Scholarship, the Indiana Education Scholarship Account, North Carolina Education Student Accounts, the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund, Texas Education Freedom Accounts, and Utah Fits All each state that Notgrass History is registered as a vendor and explain how to order. Depending on the state, the pages direct families to a Notgrass ClassWallet store, the Odyssey Parent Portal marketplace, the Step Up for Students website, or ClassWallet invoices. Notgrass also publishes ordering instructions for Montana and West Virginia families. Families should confirm with their program administrator that a specific course and package are eligible before ordering.

Alternatives

• Mystery of History, a family would choose Mystery of History over From Adam to Us because it runs four volumes across multiple years.
• Story of the World, a family would choose Story of the World over From Adam to Us because Susan Wise Bauer writes for a younger reader, and because the program is worldview-neutral enough to use in secular households.
• Sonlight Level F, a family would choose Sonlight over From Adam to Us because Sonlight organizes its world history around a literature-based reading schedule that substitutes full-length trade books for textbook passages.