Omnibus I-III: Can this be considered high school?

[WTMCassandra]

I have a dilemma. I have been using Biblioplan for a long time, and I'd like to complete my logic stage rotation in it and use Omnibus for high school. My children will be in 8th and 7th grades next year. My older child is a bit of a late bloomer and my younger child is academic--so they are close together in understanding.

 

I really like what I see with Omnibus, but I'm concerned that if I used Omnibus I-III in high school, colleges might consider it substandard because it's "for" junior high according to Veritas' website. But honestly, those works and the depth that they are studying them in, I think they are high school. I don't want to rush through them too early and/or too fast. AND, Volumes I-III have progym exercises included, which I really like. The writing assignments in IV-VI focusing on poetry and stories does NOT appeal--that's when they will need to be honing writing for college!

 

I'm concerned that if I start with Volume IV and go through VI that I will have missed vital works that I really want to hit in high school. And then I will have one more year to fill. I could fill in the first year with Vol. I or III I guess.

 

Can't I just start with Vol. I for both children in my oldest child's 9th grade year? Could I just write a course description with the time period and the works studied and not refer to Omnibus itself? Of course, some colleges want the name of the textbook, and then if they googled it and it turned up as a 7th grade book, they may think I'm trying to fake something.

 

I know I should "ask the college." But this is a question that is so far ahead in time, that things may change drastically by the time I have to actually produce transcripts.

 

What would you do in my situation? This is a burning question that has been bothering me for some time and keeping me "stuck" in planning for high school.

 

Rant: Why, oh why, did Veritas label I-III junior high?!?! Why not label them ALL as suitable between the grades of 7 and 12?!?!

Edited July 3, 2010 by WTMCassandra

[Starr]

I think you can use them for high school from what I've read.

[WTMCassandra]

Do you have any sources that can help me verify this? I've been looking at the Veritas diploma requirements for lack of anything else to look at, and they do include Vols. I-III for the two lower levels of diploma, but that makes me feel like a total slacker. I wouldn't want a college thinking I was using a lowest-possible-common-denominator curriculum. Sigh.

[michaeljenn]

We have a University Model School here in our area that will be using this for their High School History. They are an accredited school as well.

[Hoggirl]

My $0.02 isn't worth much because I do not have a high school student as of yet.

 

I feel like the primary sources could be used as high school level work and some but not all of the secondary sources. This is just based on the titles in Volume I. I can't see using The Chronicles of Narnia as high school level material. Not sure about other volumes.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

My nephew attends a classical school that uses Omnibus I-IV for high school.

[WTMCassandra]

My nephew attends a classical school that uses Omnibus I-IV for high school.

 

Could you provide the school's website? I'd like to see if I can document that other schools use them.

[WTMCassandra]

We have a University Model School here in our area that will be using this for their High School History. They are an accredited school as well.

 

Can you provide the school's website? I'd like to document that other schools are using them.

[WTMCassandra]

My $0.02 isn't worth much because I do not have a high school student as of yet.

 

I feel like the primary sources could be used as high school level work and some but not all of the secondary sources. This is just based on the titles in Volume I. I can't see using The Chronicles of Narnia as high school level material. Not sure about other volumes.

 

I agree. I think there are a few easier things sprinkled here and there to take the pressure off. As for Narnia in particular, my children know those books backwards and forwards, so I was going to fill in with a few other books that I really want them to read that we otherwise wouldn't have time for.

[Mrs. H]

I took a mayterm class in college on Lewis/Tolkein/McDonald/Williams. We read Narnia.

 

Sarah (long-time lurker)

[Cedarmom]

I did it. We listed it as great books. My son was accepted to the college.. If you look at what he will be reading; Augistine, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales etc. they are definitely high school level. Actually they are far more advanced than most public school offerings. And in Omnibus III, there are the standard books that many high schools have you read such as 1984 and The Great Gatsby.

[TravelingChris]

I think that Omnibus I is too high a level for most seventh graders. My oldest could have done it at 12/13 but not my other two who are also considered gifted. So yes, I think the readings are high school level.

[WTMCassandra]

I did it. We listed it as great books. My son was accepted to the college.. If you look at what he will be reading; Augistine, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales etc. they are definitely high school level. Actually they are far more advanced than most public school offerings. And in Omnibus III, there are the standard books that many high schools have you read such as 1984 and The Great Gatsby.

 

THANK YOU! It's nice to hear from someone who's BTDT.

[Chris in VA]

Agreeing, here.

The questions may not be totally rhetoric level, but that was ok with us--we got into good discussions because I had so much support. We used 1 and 2, but we didn't do any of the secondary reading in 1 (subbed books like Ben Hur and Quo Vadis, and Paul Little's books for theology) and didn't hit all the Shakespeare in 2 (wish we had, tho).

[Leanna Tomlinson]

Could you provide the school's website? I'd like to see if I can document that other schools use them.

 

I pm'd you.

[newbie]

I think that Omnibus I is too high a level for most seventh graders. My oldest could have done it at 12/13 but not my other two who are also considered gifted. So yes, I think the readings are high school level.

 

I agree, although we started w/111 and going to VI. These are very much Honors or AP courses. They blow other dd's reading out of the water. I think in VI this year, she has a ton of books in Primary alone, more than 20. We are doing III, IV and V for high school , you can take either this or I-III for the associate diploma program for high school. We were going to do I last year, but the class didnt fill so they put us in three.

 

I think dd will be way ahead of the learning curve in college when she completes these courses, matter of fact there are a couple books she is doing this year and my other college dd is doing the same books.

[WTMCassandra]

Thank you! That was great info.

[WTMCassandra]

Thank you, everyone. I'm starting to feel better about this.

[Angelhar]

We used Omnibus 1 last year and only got half way through it because I added sections from Abeka history to it. I plan on using Omnibus 1 and Omnibus 4 next year (ancients)for my 9th grader as we study Greeks and Romans. I plan on making a list of all the classic books we read and studied in Omnibus to show the college. I think any college would be impressed by the literature in Omnibus.

[cshell]

I sent you a pm!:001_smile:

[Tutor]

Cassandra, thank you for asking this question. My two older girls are similarly academically to yours, it seems, and I had the same questions about Omnibus.

 

All of your responses have been very helpful and encouraging. Thank you.

[cshell]

:001_smile:

[FaithManor]

Yes, I think that the important thing is not so much the spine you use but how you implement it. Even Narnia can be high school level work if you are going to explore the symbolism and hidden meanings on a rhetoric level. To be honest with you, we never found anything we liked for modern history so dd finished out the year with some Human Odyssey, Western Civilization, and lots of reading - The Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist papers, etc. and the like but do you know what she retained the most? SWB's Story of the World IV...dd always came to her little brothers' history class (I taught all three of them together that year) and then begged to do the outlining and map work with them. This lead to her and I having some absolutely fantastic conversations on a variety of modern history topics as well as how those events related to current world problems. It was wonderful! So, yes, her history grades were based on the harder spines, but if I had it to do all over again, I'd have not worked so much in those "high school" texts because in the end, she actually learned the most, even at a rhetoric level from SWB because I found a way to implement it with her - there is a lot of supplemental reading that can be done instead of using a text. Crazy, I know! But basically, we took each "story" and then went looking for the high school/college level reading material to fill in the gaps.

 

Ds will be using SWB's new Norton books. I'll be making my own assignments and tests and I think he'll retain quite a lot because she has maintained her writing style and approach which is much more interesting than any high school texts I've seen. Since the youngest will still be doing some SOTW, I am sure he'll duck in for that little session too! I welcome it because I think it is great for the younger ones to listen to the discourse on a rhetoric level. They may not quite get it yet, but it really helps set the stage for that kind of thinking.

 

Faith

[Cedarmom]

Yes, I think that the important thing is not so much the spine you use but how you implement it. Even Narnia can be high school level work if you are going to explore the symbolism and hidden meanings on a rhetoric level. Faith

 

This is so true. As a matter of fact, it is sometimes better to use books that are easier reads, or ones your child has already done to analyze on a deepr level. We had some excellant discussions on Narnia. I think it was easier for my son to look deeper into the meanings precisely because he was familiar with the books. I would (and did) call what we did high school level because of our discussions.

[imeverywoman]

I was told that it could DEFINITELY be considered as high school worthy. :)

[WTMCassandra]

Thank you! I hadn't thought to do this simple step.