I think this might be the most conflicted I’ve ever felt about a homeschool curriculum.
Not because I dislike it.
Actually, quite the opposite.
Disclosure: Thank you to Timberdoodle for providing me with Nomadic Professor World History 1 & 2 at no cost for review. I used the curriculum with my own family and am sharing our honest experience. Timberdoodle provided the curriculum, but the opinions and experiences in this review are my own.
Timberdoodle: Nomadic Professor World History 1 & 2
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Nomadic Professor World History 1 & 2 is really, really good.
My kids enjoy it. The information is fantastic. The on-location videos are one of my favorite parts. There is an enormous amount of material available, and if you have a student who genuinely loves history, I can absolutely see the appeal.
But we’re about a month into using it for our 2026–2027 homeschool year, and I have a problem:
There is so much of it.
And I’m not entirely sure yet whether the problem is the curriculum or me.
What We’re Using
This year I’m homeschooling a 9th grader and a 5th grader, and we’re combining history.
For history, we’re using Nomadic Professor World History 1 and World History 2.
This isn’t our first year doing history together. In fact, combining subjects across multiple ages is one of the ways I’ve been able to homeschool without spending our entire day doing school.
But this particular curriculum is different from some of the things we’ve used before.
Nomadic Professor is an online history program built around what it calls history “on location.” Instead of only reading about historical places and events, many of the lessons actually take you to those locations through video.
That is one of the things that drew me to it in the first place.
And now that we’re actually using it, I can tell you that the on-location lessons are genuinely one of the strongest parts of the program for my kids.
They make the material feel different from simply reading another history textbook.
The Amount of Material Is…A Lot
Let me start with what I think is the biggest consideration for anyone looking at this curriculum:
The volume.
There is a LOT here.
There are readings, audio lessons, videos, maps, notes, quizzes, additional materials, and projects. There are also materials that can be used to create a much deeper humanities experience beyond simply completing a history course.
If you want to print everything, you’re looking at hundreds of pages.
And I mean hundreds.
There is enough material here that I can absolutely understand why the program can be used as a very rigorous high school history experience.
But that also means you need to be realistic about how much time you actually have.
I initially underestimated this.
I thought we could move through one larger section each week.
Then I realized we weren’t going to finish in the timeframe I had planned.
So we moved to two a week.
Then I realized we probably needed three a week.
And that means we’re talking about roughly three hours of history instruction per week before adding the rest of the coursework.
That is a significant chunk of time in a homeschool that is also trying to fit in math, language arts, science, French, arts, outside activities, and—perhaps most importantly—life.
But Here’s Why I Haven’t Quit
This is where the review gets complicated.
Because if my kids hated it, this would be a very easy decision.
I would simply stop.
But they don’t hate it.
They genuinely enjoy it.
And that matters.
A lot.
They’re listening to the audio lessons. They’re taking notes. They’re working through maps and terms and quizzes. They’re watching the on-location videos.
They are actually interested in what they’re learning.
And that changes the equation for me.
I don’t think a curriculum has to be easy to be worthwhile.
I also don’t think difficult automatically means better.
What I’m trying to figure out is where this particular curriculum falls for our family.
The Problem With the Timeline
One of my biggest concerns is the access period.
The version we have provides ten months of access.
And honestly?
I don’t love that.
Not because ten months sounds short in isolation, but because there is enough material here that I think families may need more flexibility.
Life happens.
Kids get sick.
You take vacations.
You have appointments.
Someone gets really interested in something and spends three weeks going down a rabbit hole.
Sometimes homeschool takes longer than you expected.
That is one of the reasons I’m questioning whether trying to complete everything in a single year is actually the best way for us to use this program.
Maybe We Should Take Two Years
This thought keeps coming back to me.
Maybe the answer is not figuring out how to cram everything into one year.
Maybe the answer is not trying to.
If we split the material across two years, we could potentially slow down.
We could spend more time with the things that really interest us.
We could actually complete more of the additional work instead of constantly looking at the calendar and wondering if we’re going to finish.
And we could allow history to be something we enjoy rather than something we are racing to complete.
That is a very different approach from what I originally planned.
And I haven’t decided yet.
What We’re Actually Doing
For now, we’re adapting.
Both kids are participating in the history content.
They’re absorbing the lessons together, but their individual expectations are different.
My older student is taking more extensive notes and doing more of the high-school-level work.
My younger student is participating in the shared learning and will eventually create a curated museum exhibit.
And honestly, I think that project might end up being one of the most fun parts.
She has already decided she wants to focus her exhibit on animals and their uses across different civilizations and time periods, including domestication.
That is exactly the kind of thing I love about homeschooling.
She’s not just completing a worksheet.
She’s taking something she finds interesting and turning it into a project.
The On-Location Videos Are Saving It
If I had to pick one feature that is making me willing to keep wrestling with the workload, it would be the on-location videos.
They give the kids a reason to stay engaged.
Instead of history being entirely abstract, they get to see places and connect the information to actual locations.
And when you’re asking kids to spend this much time learning something, I think that matters.
The fact that my kids genuinely enjoy these lessons is probably the biggest reason I’m still saying, “Okay. Let’s keep going and see.”
Would I Recommend Nomadic Professor?
Yes.
But with a giant asterisk.
I would recommend it with the understanding that it is a lot.
It is not something I would purchase without looking carefully at the materials first.
I would want to know how much time I realistically had available.
I would want to think about my student’s interests.
And I would want to consider whether I was trying to complete everything simply because it was there.
Because that is another lesson I’m learning here.
Just because a curriculum includes something doesn’t mean my child has to do every single thing in it.
That is a particularly important reminder for me.
I am very much an “extra” person.
If someone gives me 47 enrichment options, my first instinct is usually to think, “Ooooh, look at all these things we could do!”
And then suddenly I have accidentally created a 47-item checklist.
That is not the curriculum’s fault.
That might be a me problem. 😂
So Where Are We Now?
We’re continuing.
We’re adapting.
We’re trying to figure out what is actually necessary and what is simply available.
And I’m leaving open the possibility that we may eventually decide that World History 1 and 2 need to become a two-year experience for us.
I haven’t decided.
And honestly, I think that’s okay.
I don’t need to have a definitive answer one month into the school year.
This is one of the things I appreciate most about homeschooling after ten years.
We can change our minds.
We can slow down.
We can do less.
We can decide that something is excellent and still decide that we’re not going to use all of it.
And sometimes the most useful curriculum review isn’t:
“YES. Buy this.”
or
“NO. Don’t buy this.”
Sometimes it’s:
“Here’s what it’s actually like. Now you can decide whether that fits your family.”
And that is what I’m trying to give you here.
Because if I were spending our homeschool dollars on a curriculum, these are exactly the things I would want someone to tell me.
It’s really good.
It’s really enjoyable.
It is incredibly comprehensive.
And it is a lot.
We’ll keep going and I’ll keep sharing what happens.
Because this is only about a month in.
And apparently, we’re already on pivot number three. 😂
