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I am loving Omnibus


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Along with ds (14yo), I am loving Omnibus -- It is giving me the questions to ask, areas to explore in literature.

 

I love to read, but I read to devour. This is making me pause, look at themes, etc.

 

I have even been saying, "You know, if the SAT essay question touches on leadership qualities (or hope for a better world, or faithfulness to a long term goal, or ... you get it), you could tie this particular character into that answer." These are things I never thought about before.

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Do you have other children along with the one using Omnibus? I'm interested in it, but not sure how I could do Omnibus with my oldest and have 3 younger students as well. Any ideas?

 

As you can tell, I have young students, so I'm looking far into the future! :) LOL!

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My ds 13 is working on it and it is really been nice for me to have the questions I need to help him delve further into a piece of work. I am learning so much myself. Although my ds is definitely ahead of me in reading the works. I just can't squeeze in enough time to complete each work myself.

 

I can't wait to order the next one.

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I'm a big Omnibus fan, too. We're using Omnibus II this year (with 10th grade ds and 8th grade dd), and I like it even better than Omnibus I! It works well for us to have both children in the same one, but I can see that it would very difficult if you have several children in different age ranges. Some friends of mine are putting together a co-op for next year with Omnibus I, and I really wish I'd had that when we did it.

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it is NOT as teacher intensive as what I was doing before. Because of its structure, ds (13) can do each day of reading and work on his own, and then we can discuss - I print out the sessions from the CD so that I know what to expect. I find that even without reading the books, I am able to interact with him on the issue being discussed. And I know what he's gotten from the book because the expected answer is right there for me.

 

I have started slipping discussions into once/week, which I need to try to fix soon. I think it's much better to go through each day with him. But we are really enjoying it. Next year we'll do Omnibus II, and then III, so that we complete the historical cycle. But then I think we will do something different. For 11th-12th we'll do more literary analysis/composition, and for the history aspect we'll probably go over British history (dh is British), and then non-western history.

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I am finding it requires 45 - 60 min for discussion, editing of essays, etc. when I have time, I usually read aloud a bit. The literature just comes alive, especially the Greek plays and Homer's stories, which are meant to be presented out loud.

 

I too (like naturalmom) don't find that I have to have read the entire book, because the answers on the teacher CD are substantial enough that I know where they are heading.

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How well do you think Omnibus will work in a traditional school setting?

 

I have all the published volumes but finished homeschooling before they came out. The reason for my question is that in the school in which I am presently employed, I am to make a presentation on classical education (what it is, how it can be implemented, how the curriculum is different, etc.). One part of the presentation that I've planned is to take a batch of books that can be used. There's nothing better than show-and-tell, ya know?! I had thought of taking all my Omnibus books for rhetoric literature.

 

I know Veritas Academy uses these in their traditional school setting, but I'd like to hear from those of you who are using it what you all think.

 

Thanks!

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Anne, I'd love to hear more about this school's transition to classical. I'm supposed to give a presentation on classical education to our headmaster, head secondary, head middle, and head elementary teachers this week. There are several of us who know about and want to transition to classical. And then there are all the others who have to inkling what classical is. If the decide to transition, I am pegged at the transition leader. So, advice will be welcome!

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Janie, it seems like it's been a long process -- at least longer than I've wanted it to be! What really got the ball rolling was when the board sent a few people to the East Coast to visit some classical schools to see firsthand what they do. (We don't have any classical schools on the island.) They saw several different "flavors" of classical and decided on the one they really liked and would work in our community. This was about a year ago. Since then, the board voted to make the change and some people from the school they visited that they really liked came out here earlier this month and did teacher training for a couple of days. That really got the teachers excited and gave them more of an idea about the philosophy of classical education. The people who came out were EXTREMELY humble and generous and helpful, and I think that went a long way toward easing teachers' fears.

 

There's a lot more to the story, so email me if you want more info. It's taken a few years, and now my own children are too old to ever benefit from the transition. :( I'll get to teach there part-time, though, and I'm excited about that.

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