From Adam to Us (Notgrass)

From Adam to Us is Notgrass History's one-year middle-school world history course, written from an evangelical Protestant starting point that treats the biblical account of creation as the opening chapter of the historical narrative rather than a separate theological appendix.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Narrative text + literature anthology + workbook
Worldview	Christian-evangelical (Restoration Movement / Churches of Christ lineage)
Grades	5-8 (marketed 5-8; used as read-aloud younger)
Formats	Print textbooks and workbooks
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	3
ESA-common	Varies by state
Accredited	No
Established	1999 (Notgrass History as a company); From Adam to Us first published 2015
Website	notgrass.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Dense for middle school; 150 lessons with literature, maps, and primary documents
Ease of teaching	4	Open-and-go; lesson plans are short and unambiguous
Content quality	4	Well-written narrative prose; literature anthology is the stronger half
Flexibility	3	One-year scope limits pacing options; content is modular by unit
Value for money	4	Full-year history plus an English credit at roughly the cost of a single textbook bundle
Worldview scope	2	Integrated Christian framing; not designed for substitution
Visual/design	3	Clean, readable, intentionally plain; not a visual showcase
Support resources	3	Answer keys, workbooks, sample literature guides; no video or online component

Who the publisher is

Notgrass History is a family-run Tennessee publisher founded by Ray and Charlene Notgrass in the late 1990s. Ray, a former campus minister and preaching minister with degrees from Middle Tennessee State, the University of Kentucky, and Harding University, began writing curriculum in 1999; Charlene writes and edits alongside him, and two of the couple's children have since joined the company as authors. The company's own About page records the startup in Ray's living room on July 1, 1999, a detail that reads less like marketing and more like the actual timeline.

The Notgrasses come out of the Restoration Movement / Churches of Christ tradition, a strand of American evangelicalism that descends from Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell and that reads Scripture plainly, holds to the authority of the biblical text, and declines to use a formal denominational label. This matters editorially because Notgrass titles are gentler in tone than publishers like Abeka or BJU Press, there is less explicit polemic, fewer worldview asides, and a steadier narrative register. Families who find other evangelical publishers too sharp-edged often land at Notgrass.

From Adam to Us is the middle-school entry in a family of Notgrass products that now spans elementary through high school. The high school titles, Exploring World History, Exploring America, and Exploring Government, are the ones that built the publisher's reputation among homeschool families seeking a one-year, one-bundle solution to the high school social studies requirement. From Adam to Us applies the same narrative-plus-anthology template to grades 5-8, shortening lessons and pitching reading level accordingly.

The core pedagogy

The program is narrative-first. Students read a short chapter from one of the two hardcover volumes, Part 1: Creation to Cathedrals and Part 2: Castles to Computers, and then work through an anthology entry that expands the lesson with a primary source, a poem, a biography, or a short story. A separate workbook collects comprehension questions, a map exercise, and an occasional activity. The whole cycle runs five days a week for thirty weeks, totaling 150 lessons, or roughly one academic year. According to Cathy Duffy's published review, daily work runs 45 to 90 minutes.

There are three signature mechanics worth naming. First, the two-credit design: Notgrass positions From Adam to Us as eligible to cover both a history and an English/literature credit, because the anthology pulls in enough literature (a mix of public-domain classics, hymns, short fiction, and primary documents) to anchor a middle-school English program on its own. Second, the biblical-timeline spine: the course opens with creation and the Old Testament narrative, treats Israel as a real historical kingdom, and then threads Christianity through the Roman world, the medieval church, the Reformation, and modern history. Third, the lesson-review format: a separate Lesson Review book and student workbook provide short quizzes and unit tests that a parent can grade against the included answer key without much friction.

Worldview integration is steady but not aggressive. Sections on ancient history treat Genesis as historical narrative; sections on the medieval and modern periods treat Christianity as a civilizational force without tipping into hagiography. Families outside the evangelical tradition will encounter a consistent Christian framing; those inside it will find it familiar rather than saturated.

A day in the life

A sixth-grader using From Adam to Us opens the day around 9:00 with a read of the day's lesson in the narrative text (15-20 minutes for roughly four to six pages), moves to the corresponding anthology reading (20-30 minutes, sometimes a biographical sketch, sometimes a primary source like an excerpt from the Code of Hammurabi or a Reformation-era hymn), and then works through the student workbook (15-20 minutes, a comprehension set, a map exercise, and a short writing prompt two or three days a week). On designated days there is a literature assignment from the separate ten-book literature package (Adam and His Kin, The Golden Goblet, The Trumpeter of Krakow, The Bronze Bow, and others), which adds 20-30 minutes of reading. End-of-unit weeks swap one day's lesson for a short unit test. Total daily commitment lands at 60-90 minutes, with parent involvement mostly supervisory after the first few weeks.

Because the program is entirely print, there is no video alternative. Families who want a video spine pair From Adam to Us with Drive Thru History episodes or use it as the reading backbone to a co-op discussion group.

What they do exceptionally well

The anthology. The paired anthology, Our Creative World, is the strongest piece of the program and the one that most distinguishes Notgrass from its peer publishers. Rather than assigning a textbook passage about the Roman Empire, the anthology puts a student in front of an actual letter from Pliny the Younger, a hymn text, or a narrative account written in-period. Middle-schoolers emerge with actual exposure to source material that most American seventh-grade history courses never reach.

The two-credit claim. For families covering both history and English, the bundled design is unusually efficient. The ten-book literature package pairs to the historical timeline (the biblical-era titles read alongside Part 1, the medieval-and-modern titles alongside Part 2), and the workbook's writing prompts double as English composition exercises. A family can genuinely use the course to satisfy both subjects without feeling they have padded either one.

Tone. Notgrass writes plainly. The sentences are declarative, the worldview is stated rather than argued, and the narrative does not linger to editorialize. This is a real editorial virtue in middle-school history, a genre prone to both cheerful marketing voice and sermonizing.

What they do poorly

Visual design is plain to the point of austerity. The textbook pages are clean, readable, and largely free of color, photography, or timeline graphics beyond what the map book supplies. A reluctant reader who thrives on Story of the World's illustrations or the DK-style photo treatments in Master Books titles may find the Notgrass volumes visually flat. This is a deliberate editorial choice. Notgrass prefers prose, but it is a real trade.

Worldview integration is steady, not optional. The program treats Genesis as historical and Christian civilization as a positive inheritance. These framings thread through the narrative rather than appearing only in bracketed sidebars. Families who want a secular world history for grades 5-8 should look elsewhere rather than attempting to edit Notgrass on the fly; the structure doesn't reward substitution.

No video, no adaptive review. A family that needs a video lecture, an online quiz bank, or algorithmic review will not find it here. The company's format is print, the review tool is a workbook, and the answer key is a paper booklet. That fits some families and frustrates others.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick From Adam to Us if: your family is evangelical Protestant and wants a gentler tone than Abeka or BJU; you have a middle-schooler who reads well and likes narrative; you want history and English on one receipt; you value primary sources over textbook retellings; you prefer open-and-go print over screen-based instruction.

• Skip From Adam to Us if: you are secular, Catholic, or Orthodox and want a world history that starts without the Genesis framing; you need a program that flexes to a half-year or eighteen-month pace; you have a struggling reader for whom dense narrative prose is a barrier; you want a video track or an online quiz system; you already use Story of the World or Mystery of History and don't need another chronological world survey.

Cost honest assessment

The full From Adam to Us curriculum package, the two volumes, Our Creative World anthology, map book, timeline book, student workbook, lesson review book, and answer key, lists at $125 on Notgrass's shop page as of April 2026. Adding the ten-book literature package brings the total to approximately $246. Individual components, student workbook ($14), lesson review book ($12), are available separately for families with multiple children.

Compared at the same grade band: Mystery of History Volume 1 runs roughly $90 for the core text without workbook or audio; Story of the World volumes are about $30 each and require the purchaser to assemble activity books and tests; Sonlight's Level F world history covers similar ground at roughly $900 with literature included. Notgrass sits in the middle, more expensive than the lightest options, dramatically less than a full literature-based program.

A two-child family using From Adam to Us with both children on the same schedule spends roughly $280-$290 the first year (shared hardcovers, separate consumables) and $26 per additional child per subsequent sibling rotation, a meaningfully frugal profile for a full-year history-and-English combination.

ESA eligibility notes

Notgrass appears on several state ESA marketplaces where Christian curricula are permitted, including Arkansas LEARNS and Utah Fits All. Because Notgrass sells direct through its own storefront rather than exclusively through curriculum retailers, ESA families should confirm vendor status through their state's specific marketplace before ordering; some states restrict religious curriculum reimbursement, and Notgrass is unambiguously a Christian publisher. The company does not publish a dedicated ESA workflow page, which places a larger coordination burden on the purchasing family than Abeka's or BJU Press's direct-reimbursement flows.

Alternatives

• Mystery of History, a family would choose Mystery of History over From Adam to Us because it runs four volumes across multiple years rather than compressing world history into one, and because Linda Lacour Hobar's narrative voice is noticeably warmer.
• 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 with more color and narrative, 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 replaces the narrative-textbook spine with a literature-based reading schedule that substitutes full-length trade books for textbook passages.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the publisher's product pages at shop.notgrass.com, the About and company history page, and the free lesson samples available on the publisher's site. We cross-referenced Cathy Duffy's published review and the Rainbow Resource catalog listing. Prices and program details verified April 2026.