Omnibus 1 question

[Debbie in IL]

I'm trying to work out at least a rough idea of timing / scheduling for this year for ds (7th grade). We will be using VP Omnibus 1 for the first time, and I'm wondering if anyone can give me an idea of how they used it on a weekly basis. I see that the TM gives suggestions on how to progress through each day. Did you find that this work, or did you need to tweak it? Also, how did you handle the TM material for each week (the intro / background material) - did you read it to or with your student? Or just use it yourself as background info?

 

Thanks so much for the help!

 

Deb

[Suzannah]

We've done Omni 2 and half of 3, finishing 3 this year. I use it without the TM. I'm sure it's much better with it, but I'm a cheapskate. :) DS does the introductory reading and we discuss the questions orally, then he's on his own to do the assigned reading before the next class time. Basically we go on like that, until we come to a writing assignment (which I generally don't assign but often have him read if there's good info) or other activity (which I generally do assign if it's a comparison chart, debate, etc.) I slacked-off a little toward the end of the year, but I like for DS to copy the "Question to Consider" into a journal. He doesn't have to write an answer unless he wants to, but I like the idea of letting that question "stew" a bit while he goes through the process. Sometimes we discuss it later. Sometimes I have him go back and read over the questions and think about/answer them. But it's fairly lax. I also like for him to write a short report (1 page) about each reading, but sometimes we let it slide, depending on schedule, whether or not he's read the book before, etc.

 

No, we don't do all of the readings, but we got most of them from Omni 2 and nearly all from the first half of Omni 3 (trying to stick to the WTM 4-year cycle) plus a few others.

 

Oh, and there's a chart at the back of the text, just before the timeline that shows about how long to spend on each book. That has been very helpful in my initial planning.

 

I've really enjoyed the books and look forward to circling back to Omni 1 next year. Then I'll have to decide whether to go on to the later Omnibus books or switch to TOG or what. Good luck!

[Chris in VA]

It's been a few years, but I recall just reading the teacher's stuff for my own knowledge. I didn't do the secondary books with Omni 1 at all; we had already read all the Narnia books, and substituted several other books for Aborted Socrates and Sproul's book.

I simply went thru the assignments day-by-day. We skipped the progym assignments, and I did assign ds a context page ala WTM for every Great Book we read.

[TerriMI]

We're doing Omnibus I this year. This is my younger set. The older set went through it 3 years ago and like them, we will not be doing all of the books. In fact, I have scheduled a little less than half of them. The first three weeks we will do Genesis. Yes, I am beefing it up. We will use Omnibus and the Greenleaf Guide to Ancient Lit the first two weeks. Then I have other sources that explain the differences in the ideas that Christians have about a time-frame for Creation. We will study that controversy the third week. Then we move on to Gilgamesh and the Code of Hammurabi, just spending the allotted one week apiece. After that, we spend 6 weeks on the Odyssey although there is only 5 allotted. I beef this up with the Greenleaf guide and with Vandiver lectures and various other resources.Then it's on to the allotted time for Herodotus and Aeschylus....Anyway we do not do any of the Secondary books at all and not many of the Bible. We already have plans for Bible study and we don't have time for the rest. We have a full plate already since we must get to Traditional Logic this year. Of course, this means they earn only one credit for the Omnibus class.

 

As for daily work, I look at each week and decide what will fit my goals for that week. For instance, I have added so much to the Odyssey study, that we will do class every day. They will probably have weekend work too. The Herodotus study has so much reading that we will do two lessons some days and none for other days in order to give than alot of time for reading.

 

As for the prologues, we will generally read the first part that introduces the author and the work, but will leave the worldview section for the last session. This seems more appropriate for my dc. They want to read the work for themselves before getting someone else's analysis. Reading the worldview section last will let them gain some of their own perspective of the work first. Then they will more easily have an opinion of the worldview section, they can approach it more critically.

 

I really like the progym writing. We have been using CW for years, and I also have Composition in the Classical Tradition to help. In fact, we will do more progym writing than they ask. It really fits in so many places. They will also do some of the essays that use the discussions as topics of invention. They have not had so much practice at this so the first few times I assign these, I will lead them step by step into an outline and help them with the actual rough draft...something like what LToW does in its first few lessons.

 

You see how I tweak the whole thing to make it what I want it to be, so that it will fit my goals and my family? It is just a really good guide for our homeschool.

 

Just some thoughts. Hope that helps some.

Edited August 6, 2010 by TerriKY