Our Star-Spangled Story Part 1

by Charlene Notgrass, Bethany Poore, Mary Evelyn McCurdy

322 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2018

Reviews

[Alana/MiaTheReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for homeschool families! I chose this as our history curriculum for our 2nd semester after finishing Vol 2 of The Story of the World in the 1st semester. I wanted my kids to have more of an understanding of American History after doing broad world history most of their lives.

I read this curriculum aloud to a 6th grader, 3rd grader, and Kindergartener. Everyone enjoyed it and retained good information, though the tone and length of chapter is definitely geared toward the 1st-5th grade age. This book focuses on various people in U.S. History instead of a comprehensive understanding of the details of the time period. It comes with a timeline book that is really helpful in understanding scope. Another important note it is very Christian oriented. Sometimes the way each chapter ends with a Bible verse feels forced and unnecessary, but overall the way the book handles the fact that many celebrated people in our past did very wrong things is well done, especially for the target age.

We paired this curriculum with viewing Liberty's Kids on Youtube and my 3rd grader reading American Girl books (Felicity, Kirsten, Caroline, Josefina, Samantha). I strongly encouraged her to read Addy, Kit, and Molly, but she didn't like those, for her own particular reasons. Maybe in the future she will!

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The actual stories aren’t bad and the pictures are nice but it skips huge chunks of history. It is pretty much chronological and you go from Abraham Lincoln growing up to reconstruction of the United States. Completely skips the civil war. Same with revolutionary. Talked about a kid before the tea party then concord then done. Some of the stories aren’t interesting enough to keep the kids attention. I love history and I could have gone without some parts. They also talk about how awful the white people were during the war of 1812 and their example was how they killed Indians that killed people inside their fort. They talked about how the Indians killed the American soldiers because they stole the land then talked about how Indians didn’t believe in owning land. So we are supposed to read a book that bashed the American army because they were being killed in their fort that the Indians couldn’t own? Surely they could have found a better example.

[Kaleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book! My nine year old daughter and I just finished part 1, and we are now moving on to part 2. We are both enjoying it! The only reason I rated it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it seems like it skips over some stuff (it is meant for younger kids so I kind of expect that to an extent; it also seems to jump around a bit).

[Hunt Academy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 2nd and 4th graders say- We loved it so much! We want more!

This was a fantastic intro of US History for my elementary age kids. It really helped them develop a mental timeline of general events. The photos are fantastic. The stories are engaging and enjoyable. The also enjoyed several of the additional read alouds recommended as well as the music component.

[Margaret Chind · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are loving this curriculum. I have an affiliate link, I'd love to share if you head to buy it. Any questions, just ask. Full review to come.

Referral: http://notgrass.com /affiliate/account.php?page=35#

#notgrasshistory