Notgrass History

Notgrass History is the Tennessee-based family publisher whose narrative-plus-primary-source approach has, over thirty years, become the most-used Christian high-school history program in the homeschool market. The company is small, the product is print, and the catalog is essentially one author's voice extended across three decades.

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

At a glance

Method	Subject-specialist (history); narrative text plus primary-source anthology and literature
Worldview	Christian-evangelical (providential framing; conservative-American voice in U.S. history)
Grades	K-12 (early-elementary through high-school full-credit courses)
Formats	Print (text, student workbook, primary-source volumes, literature kits)
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	3
ESA-common	Yes (approved on most state marketplaces that allow Christian curriculum)
Accredited	No (curriculum only)
Established	1996 by Ray and Charlene Notgrass (notgrass.com/about-us)
Website	notgrass.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	High-school courses are credit-worthy; primary-source density is above the homeschool mean
Ease of teaching	4	Open-and-go; student reads independently; parent reviews and grades
Content quality	4	Ray Notgrass's narrative voice is widely loved; literature integration is structural rather than optional
Flexibility	3	Course-by-course modular; full curriculum locks the family into the Notgrass voice
Value for money	4	$120-$175 per high-school course is competitive for what the kit includes
Worldview scope	2	Christian-providential, conservative-American voice; secular and progressive households will find the frame load-bearing
Visual/design	3	Workmanlike; print-only with no video; covers and interior layout are functional rather than polished
Support resources	4	Family-operated customer service; convention presence; responsive

Who the publisher is

Notgrass History was founded in 1996 by Ray and Charlene Notgrass, a married couple based in Gainesboro, Tennessee, who began the company with the publication of Exploring America, a one-year high-school American history course that integrates narrative text with substantial primary-source readings and a literature anthology (notgrass.com/about-us). The company has remained family-operated for nearly thirty years and has expanded slowly: Exploring World History added a one-year world-history credit, Exploring Government and Economics added the high-school civics half-credit, and middle-grades titles (America the Beautiful, From Adam to Us, Uncle Sam and You) extended the catalog downward.

The company's organizational character is unusual in homeschool publishing. Ray writes most of the text; Charlene contributes; their adult children John and Bethany have taken on increasing roles in writing and editing the newer titles. The customer service is staffed by family members. Convention booths are run by family members. This is one of the cleaner examples of a small, family-operated publisher in the homeschool middle market, closer in scale to Bright Ideas Press or Beautiful Feet Books than to the Abeka or Sonlight tier.

Theologically and politically, Notgrass is openly Christian-evangelical and conservative-American. The framing is providential. God's hand in history is the narrative spine, and the American history volumes are patriotic in a register that reads conservative-evangelical without being triumphalist. The authors handle difficult material (slavery, Native American displacement, Japanese internment, civil rights) directly and with documented primary sources, but the political frame remains right-of-center. Families looking for revisionist, progressive, or secular history will find Notgrass's frame visible throughout. Families comfortable with a Christian-conservative-American voice will find the treatment serious and readable.

The core pedagogy

The pedagogical structure rests on three modes of history instruction running in parallel: narrative text, primary-source reading, and literature-linked reading. The student reads a daily lesson in the Notgrass-written text (typically 8-12 pages), reads assigned primary sources from the In Their Words companion volume (presidential addresses, founding documents, period letters, journalism), and reads through one of several novels or non-fiction books linked to the era under study (The Scarlet Letter during the colonial unit, Uncle Tom's Cabin during the antebellum unit, The Red Badge of Courage during the Civil War unit). The student workbook ties the three streams together with daily questions, weekly quizzes, and term essays.

The pedagogical commitment that distinguishes Notgrass from comparable Christian publishers is the structural integration of literature into the history credit. Most history programs (BJU, Abeka, Mystery of History, Tapestry of Grace) treat literature as a parallel track or as optional supplement. Notgrass builds the literature into the daily reading schedule and tests it on the same workbook pages as the historical content. The result is that an Exploring America student finishes the year with a defensible high-school American history credit and a defensible American literature credit, many homeschool families take both credits from the single course.

Three signature mechanics define how the program runs. (1) Daily-rhythm reading. The student reads a fixed amount of narrative text plus a fixed primary-source excerpt and a fixed novel chapter each day. (2) Bible study integration. Each unit includes a short Bible-study component tying biblical themes to the historical content. (3) No video component. This is a deliberate publisher choice. Notgrass is print-only by design, which families either love (cleaner reading habit) or find limiting (parent can't outsource instruction to a screen).

A day in the life

A tenth-grader using Exploring America opens the day at 9:00 AM with the day's text reading (today: Lesson 47 on the antebellum reform movements, roughly 10 pages). The student spends 35-45 minutes reading the narrative text, taking notes, and answering the workbook questions. Then 20-25 minutes on the assigned primary-source reading from In Their Words (today: an excerpt from Frederick Douglass's Narrative). Then 30-40 minutes on the day's chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the assigned novel for this unit. Total course time: 90-110 minutes, four days per week, with a fifth day reserved for the weekly quiz, essay drafting, or longer primary-source reading.

The parent's role is review and grading. Workbook pages are checked daily or weekly; quizzes are graded from the included answer key; term essays receive the parent's review (or, in some families, are submitted to a separate writing tutor). Total parent time runs 1-2 hours per week per high-school student. Because the program is open-and-go and the student reads independently, Notgrass is one of the lower-friction ways to deliver a high-school credit-level history course at home.

What they do exceptionally well

Primary-source density. Notgrass packs two to three times more primary-source reading into a course than a typical homeschool history textbook. In Their Words, the companion primary-source volume that ships with Exploring America, runs over 800 pages of presidential addresses, founding documents, period letters, and journalism. Students who complete the program have actually read Lincoln's Cooper Union address, Washington's farewell, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington, not just summaries of them. This is rare at the homeschool price point.

Literature integration as structural choice. Building the literature into the daily reading schedule rather than treating it as parallel-track supplement is a serious pedagogical commitment, and it is what allows families to take both a history and a literature credit from a single course. Most homeschool programs that try to combine credits do so loosely; Notgrass does so structurally.

Ray Notgrass's narrative voice. The text reads warmly and conversationally rather than as a textbook. Students consistently describe the writing as more readable than standard high-school history textbooks, which lowers the friction of independent daily reading. For a course that depends on the student actually doing the daily reading, voice quality is load-bearing.

What they do poorly

No video instruction. Notgrass is print-only by design, and this is the program's most consistent friction point with prospective customers. Families whose students learn better from video, or whose parents cannot supplement the reading with discussion, find the absence of any video component limiting. Competitors (Drive Thru History, Sonlight with its IDVD options, BJU video, Abeka Academy) all offer video; Notgrass deliberately does not.

Conservative-American voice in U.S. history. This is descriptive rather than evaluative, the publisher is upfront about the worldview, but it bears noting for families considering the fit. The U.S. history volumes treat the founding era with reverence, the founders sympathetically, the Constitution as foundational rather than revisable, and modern progressive movements with critical distance. Families who want a more critical or revisionist American history (or a more progressive frame) will find Notgrass's voice consistently visible across the text.

Workbook depth at the middle-grade level. America the Beautiful and From Adam to Us are designed for grades 5-8, and the workbook questions skew toward comprehension and recall rather than deeper analysis. Strong middle-school students working at the upper end of the grade band find the workbook tasks easy; families compensating extend with outside writing prompts or more rigorous reading. The high-school courses do not have this issue.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Notgrass if: you are a Christian-evangelical or conservative-traditional household; you want a credit-worthy print history course that integrates literature and primary sources; you have a student who reads well independently and does not require video instruction; you value narrative voice over textbook density; you want one course to satisfy both a history and a literature credit at the high-school level.

• Skip Notgrass if: you are secular, progressive, Catholic-with-classical-priorities, Orthodox, Jewish, or LDS; you want video instruction; you want a more critical or revisionist American history; you have a struggling reader who cannot manage 90-110 minutes of daily reading at high-school level; you want a multi-age family-style history program (Mystery of History or Tapestry of Grace are the better fits).

Cost honest assessment

Notgrass high-school course kits as of April 2026 run approximately $120-$180 per course depending on which components the family includes, with the standard Exploring America kit (text, student workbook, In Their Words primary-source volume, literature package) clustering around $145-$165 (notgrass.com/curriculum). Middle-grades kits (America the Beautiful, From Adam to Us, Uncle Sam and You) run $95-$140. Component prices and bundles update without notice; the publisher's pricing page is the canonical source.

Compared to BJU Press high-school history (roughly $250-$400 per course including video), Notgrass is meaningfully cheaper for the print-only experience. Compared to Sonlight high-school cores (roughly $700-$1,000 for the full literature-rich package), Notgrass at one-third to one-fifth the price represents one of the better dollar values in the Christian high-school history tier, though Sonlight's literature curation is more elaborate. Compared to Tapestry of Grace (roughly $250-$300 per year-plan plus substantial book purchases), Notgrass is similarly priced after Tapestry's books are added.

A realistic all-in family budget for one high-school student running Notgrass Exploring America with full kit runs $145-$165 for the year. A two-year sequence (Exploring America plus Exploring World History) runs $290-$330 across the four-year high-school career, among the cheapest credit-worthy paths to a complete high-school history-and-literature requirement.

ESA eligibility notes

Notgrass History is approved on most state ESA marketplaces that allow Christian curriculum, including Florida's Step Up For Students, Arizona's ClassWallet ESA, Iowa's Students First Scholarship, West Virginia's Hope Scholarship, and the Utah Fits All marketplace. The publisher does not maintain a dedicated ESA-vendor workflow on its own site; orders typically route through state marketplace vendors. ESA-funded families should verify the specific course in their state marketplace before assuming eligibility, as some states restrict religious curriculum and some do not, and as the Notgrass catalog is sometimes listed under specific course titles rather than under the publisher name.

Alternatives

• Mystery of History, a multi-child Christian household would choose Mystery of History over Notgrass because Mystery of History is built for family-style multi-age use with three age-banded activity tracks per lesson; the trade is a less rigorous high-school-credit experience and no integrated literature package.
• Sonlight HBL packages, a literature-focused Christian household would choose Sonlight over Notgrass because Sonlight's history-and-literature curation is the most extensive in the Christian homeschool market; the trade is significantly higher cost and a more parent-intensive read-aloud rhythm.
• Tapestry of Grace, a classical-Christian household would choose Tapestry over Notgrass because Tapestry is the most elaborate multi-age classical-Christian history program with rotating four-year sequences and grade-banded reading lists; the trade is steeper learning curve and higher all-in cost after book-list purchases.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Notgrass History's product pages, scope-and-sequence documents, and pricing tables at notgrass.com, the company's published author bios, and sample chapters from Exploring America and Exploring World History. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy's review of Notgrass and the HSLDA publisher directory. Prices and program details verified April 2026.