Moving from Sonlight to Veritas Press for 7th grade

[Faith Dean]

We've pretty happily stuck with SL since the beginning of our homeschool journey (6 years). As we finish Core E, however, I'm realizing anew that it simply is not rigorous enough. I've added quite a few resources in myself, which has created more work and it's too much with a family of 9.

 

At this point, I'm looking at going either into Core G or Omnibus I for 7th grade. My dd 11 and dd 10 are the ones I'm choosing curriculum for as we're heading into 7th grade in all subject areas (though I recognize they are a little on the young side for going into mostly logic stage coursework). However, many of the works offered by VP look quite advanced at least for this age. While I love how rigorous it looks, I am a little concerned that we aren't quite ready for it. What ages did you start Omnibus I?

 

I don't really want to start Core G and then not do Core H. Nor do I want to do Core F and leave the girls completely unprepared for how challenging Ominibus I will be, though I REALLY like the book list for Core F. I just don't think it's going to push them enough. Have any of you in this situation done some sort of transition course? VP has one for history, but I'd like to get some details from someone who has used it successfully.

[kiwi mum]

We had a similar experience with Sonlight, adding more and more to it until finally giving up after core F. We did end up using Omnibus next, but not as written. We skipped some books, read but skipped assignments for others, added in more lighter books (lots from Sonlight G and H). I did this with a gifted kid and still don't think he would have done well with Omnibus as written at age 12.

 

I only had two students at the time I did this, so am of no help with how to do it with a large family, but I would think that it would require a lot of hand holding due to the age of your student. There is also a lot of mature content in the ancient literature, which I wouldn't have been happy handing over at that age without me having pre-read it to know what was coming up. There is going to be a huge jump in level from SL core E (recommended for grade 4+) to Omni 1 (grade 7 on steroids).

 

I think what I would do in your situation would be a combination of Omni and SL- to slow down the omni to let them mature and to provide some lighter books among the heavy omni selections. If you wanted to use the core F selections as well you could slot them in among the history books as well. 

 

Hope you find something that works for your family.

Edited August 23, 2016 by kiwi mum

[Tumbatoo]

I did this! We used Sonlight through F (and are still using the lower levels), and my 12 year old is doing Omnibus 1 Self paced: both primary and secondary this year, as written for 7th. I love the depth and it is just the right amount of challenge for him. He's really having to work on his essay writing for literature. The lectures add a lot to the material in my opinion. However, my Ds is highly gifted. I would not recommend this challenging of a course for the average 11-12 year old. I would say it could easily be more like 9-10th or higher grade level. Also, we are reading the whole chapters in the recommended history text (it's an AP history text) instead of just the selections, and using core G readers/read aloud to beef up the history since Omnibus is Great Books based and lighter on history. If you're not sure, check out a couple of the books from the library to see how they do with them.

 

Omnibus expects Students to be solid on world history, because VP focuses on this in the lower grades. So going slow and adding in the history could be an option, or, spend a year first on world history as another option?

[Pistachio mom]

My oldest finished Omni 1 last year for 9th grade, this year we are doing the self paced Omni 2. She loves the content.  Honestly, the reading assignments are very heavy in  Omni 1. I chose to wait until 9th grade because I wanted her  to be mature enough to benefit from the literature. As you know, you are reading translations of classic primary sources. Some of it is quite explicit in describing something to do with war or religious pagan rituals. We did a lot of the writing assignments too, called Summas. The reading assignments for Omni 2 are also big, but do not seem to be as rough as Omni 1. We love the lectures, the online discussions, and the content. My student really does enjoy the course, it is challenging. I see the influence of studying this literature with godly guidance reflected in her conversations about various subjects. We love this study and are thankful that it is available.

 

Weaknesses? In the Omni we have seen so far, I had to add in map work, and like the comments above - I did add in some Western Civ reading to make sure my student was "getting" the big picture as well as reading the assigned biographies and historical accounts.

 

If you start if and find it too heavy and need to skip a book, you do have the online self paced option of switching your student to audit. Then, you can skip around with the lectures - rather than go in order. If you are doing this online, the full credit is earned by the online work alone  -no compositions. But I had my student do a good bit of the writing that the textbook assigns. M:y state requires 2 years of grammar and composition credits, so we included plenty of writing.