Omnibus questions

[Kathie in VA]

Is there a place online where I can see samples of Omnibus? I went to the Veritas Press website but couldn't find a link for samples. How does it work... does it use a spine (meaning one narrative source to take you through the basics and then assigns additional reading for depth)?

 

I read somewhere that they are comming out with Omnibus IV, for beginning rhetoric stage, in 2 years... anyone know if this is current info?

 

If you use Omnibus I, II or III for high school work, do you need to alter it any since it was designed for 7th-9th grades (logic stage)? If so, how?

 

tia

[mellifera]

I borrowed a copy of Omnibus I from a friend, so I can't help you with the samples part. However, the reading for I through III is fairly challenging so I wouldn't think that you would have to do anything to tweak that. The main difference between doing Omnibus for high school and Omnibus for jr. high would be in the answers to the questions. For high school I would expect more depth and understanding than I do for jr. high.

 

I can tell you that there is quite a bit of reformed theology in it. That doesn't bother some people and others can't use it for that reason. I didn't like the way they discussed a couple of the books, so we used another resource to discuss them when they were read. We really do like Omnibus for the most part, though.

[Chris in VA]

There's a sample under "Resources" of the Genesis chapter. Go to Resources, then downloads, then you'll see it.

 

Omnibus contains an essay of varying length to introduce each assigned book. The essays are approximately 8-10 pages long (some longer, maybe some shorter--book isn't in front of me). They give an overview of the plot of the book, and just a little historical context, as well as the opinions of the author of the essay. At the end of each essay, there are assignments to read from other sources--most notably, Spielvogel's Western Civ. These assignments are like the "suggestions for further reading" you may find in the back of any historical resource. You can skip them if you want. I found it most helpful to go ahead and have ds read the entire chapter of Spielvogel that pertained to the times of the Great Book--if I had to do it again, I'd make him outline it, too. Not every Great Book comes with an outside reading in Spielvogel, and there are other outside resources you can choose to use.

 

After the essay portion, there are questions of varying types and depth to go with each reading assignment. You get a pretty good picture of this with the Genesis example. I wish they had done a different book as a sample, but it gives you a good idea of the process. The teacher CD-Rom contains the exact same things as the student text, but with answers in a different color right under the questions. This is extremely useful!

 

We loved Omnibus, esp. the first year, when we had just started homeschooling. I didn't agree with everything, and we are not Reform, but I did not have to tweak much. We added in about 5 or 6 historical fiction books, and did not read the secondary reading (mostly Narnia that first year). I still gave 3 credits because we did other theology work.

 

hth