? Omnibus Users: Classical Writing

[mommaduck]

I'm going to be using Omnibus with my 7th grader this year. I am planning on using Classical Writing with my 4th grader. Should I use Classical Writing with my 7th grader as well or is this kind of writing covered in Omnibus?

[Cedarmom]

There is some progymnasta in Omnibus, but not a lot. Omnibus also does not give very detailed instructions for writing. I think Classical Writing would be a good fit with Omnibus.

[mommaduck]

I'm trying to work out a schedule: How is Classical Writing done (Can I break it down to 2-3 days a week?)

[MarinesWife]

I've only read the Aesop book but I'm excited to use it! It is 4 days a week. I can see how Omnibus and Classical Writing would go well together.

[FloridaLisa]

There is some progymnasta in Omnibus, but not a lot. Omnibus also does not give very detailed instructions for writing. I think Classical Writing would be a good fit with Omnibus.

 

 

:iagree: Omnibus requires a survey of writing assignments, with no real writing instruction itself. CW, on the other hand, will provide in-depth writing instrution as well as grammar. We will start CW this year for the first time and, based on my planning, it looks like we'll do CW 3 days per week.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[Michelle in MO]

There is some progymnasta in Omnibus, but not a lot. Omnibus also does not give very detailed instructions for writing. I think Classical Writing would be a good fit with Omnibus.

 

We've used both Omnibus I and II, and although Omnibus does include some progymnasmata work, there is not a lot of instruction to go along with that. Perhaps at Veritas Academy (it's published by VP, of course) there's ample work in the progymnasmata prior to the 7th grade; I'm not really sure.

 

At any rate, I think 3 days a week would be a good writing schedule to go alone with CW. Also, feel free to "tweak" the writing assignments as you see fit. I did that, especially this last year. In addition to that, I used Cindy Marsch's Progymnasmata Tutorials, which were excellent. I also generally used the Summa questions at the end of each section for writing assignments. I usually required only one writing assignment per book that we studied, and I would generally give my older two girls a choice among the different Summa questions for a topic. Then I would detail for them what I expected, which depended upon the topic. I would usually type up a sheet of paper for them that would give detailed instructions about my expectations. For example, I think on one of the assignments it went something like this:

 

1. The length must be at least 600 words.

2. You must have at least five paragraphs: introduction, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion.

3. You must include at least five references to or quotes from the book; the quotations cannot be more than 50 words long (I did this because they liked to put quotes in as "filler"!)

 

Then, I would submit my requirements and the assignments to Cindy Marsch for an evaluation. I did this in addition to the Progymnasmata Tutorials we did with her, although when they were doing a tutorial I didn't usually require extra writing from them.

 

Of course, the requirements you would have for your dc would depend upon their age and writing ability. Mine are 16 and 14 now. Also, with Omnibus I generally tended to use their tests/evaluations for the historical books and gave them a written assignment instead of a test for the literary works.

 

Omnibus is a great program, and this is just what worked for our family. Feel free to adapt it as you need!

[mommaduck]

Approx how much time do you spend on each book? Did you use all the suggested readings or just some (my son has read the entire Narnia series, so I would probably just do the questions orally with him).

[Michelle in MO]

in the Teacher's Edition book. Two years ago our schedule was completely disrupted! :( This past year went much better. I was able to follow their schedule fairly well and keep up the pace, as long as we did Omnibus daily. It generally took about 45 minutes for discussion and another hour, perhaps, for the girls to do their reading assignments.

 

I'll have to check back with you later on the books that I did, but for Omnibus II, I followed Janie's suggestions (Janie posts on these boards) for the readings. We did not get nearly as much done with Omnibus I as we would have liked, due to the disruption of our schedule and also my not really understanding how to use the program correctly.

 

Which level of Omnibus are you going to do? That might determine your readings. If you can give me that information, I might be able to help steer you in the right direction. Many people pick and choose among the readings, though.

[mommaduck]

We'll be doing Omnibus I. I've borrowed the book from my pastor's wife, but she didn't bring the CD. I won't be ordering till August as that is when hubby has it budgeted. So I'm trying to schedule something that isn't even in my hands yet and none of it is listed in the HST+ files.

[Michelle in MO]

I think you'll get more of a response there. I think there are several others besides me who have used Omnibus I. We didn't get that much done on this first book because in the fall our homeschool group embarked upon a huge project which took up inordinate amounts of time. Plus, we only did Omnibus every other day, which was a mistake. I really should have followed a daily plan. Things went much better with Omnibus II, and I could give you better advice on that book.

 

I would definitely do the main books, like The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Herodotus' Histories. I would avoid Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars. Many have avoided that book; there are selections in there that are pretty lurid in their descriptions of the s*xual tastes of the Caesars.

 

Some of your choices would depend upon the age and inclinations of your ds. If you've already worked through the Chronicles of Narnia, you could either choose to do them again for deeper study, or skip them because you're already familiar with them. That would allow more time for the other books.

 

Sorry to not be of more help! I could give you the list of books covered, but I wouldn't be able to give you great advice on which ones to cover, as we didn't get that much done last year.

[mommaduck]

I'll cp over on HS, thank you. I'm not certain about The Twelve Ceasar's...my son is very ooged about about sexuality (more like, we've taught him to guard his eyes and heart), but he is also very technical and takes it all very medically. He has no problem seeing women breastfeed or seeing a birthing video...but if a woman is on tv in a bikini, he turns his head/covers his eyes/goes "ewww, I don't want to see that".

[Michelle in MO]

the situations described are more perversions than anything else. One of the Caesar's "relationships" with little boys and infants is described in rather graphic detail.

 

You might do a search with the terms "Omnibus" on the h.s. board and see what discussions come up. On the old boards, Julie in PA, who is the wife of the online instructor for Omnibus at VP, gives a full description of the questionable content in Omnibus I. I think Beth in SW WA gave a link to it on the old boards. I haven't figured out yet how to search the old boards, though!

[mommaduck]

TY...a little surprised that VP would choose The Twelve Ceasars then...I'm not against my children being exposed to some things with guidance, but not for overtly graphic description either.

[Michelle in MO]

which may help:

 

http://wtmboards.com/HSboardNov202007/

 

If you type in "Control F" (hit the "Control" button on your keyboard and then the letter "F") it'll bring up the old boards from November, and type in "Omnibus I" in the Search box, and it'll bring you down to where some discussions start. I'm not sure that any of these are the discussion I'm thinking about.

 

Try checking out the Members List, too; look for Julie in PA. She was very helpful with more info. on Omnibus.

 

Yes, I think there were others that were surprised that VP chose The Twelve Caesars. But, there are some very good selections in Omnibus I that I'm sure you and your ds would both enjoy! :)

[siloam]

I'm trying to work out a schedule: How is Classical Writing done (Can I break it down to 2-3 days a week?)

 

Are you just going to use the writing portion of CW or the whole LA program? Long term (after Aesop) you will have a hard time doing the whole program in 2-3 days, but if you are only doing the writing I think you can pull it off.

 

If you do a post with just CW in the title, you would probalby pull in some upper level users. I haven't actually used anything beyond Aesop, so that is just my perception from being around the program for a while. Not based on true experience.

 

Heather

[mommaduck]

Planning on the full CW.

[Katie144]

:001_smile:

I think you'll get more of a response there. I think there are several others besides me who have used Omnibus I. We didn't get that much done on this first book because in the fall our homeschool group embarked upon a huge project which took up inordinate amounts of time. Plus, we only did Omnibus every other day, which was a mistake. I really should have followed a daily plan. Things went much better with Omnibus II, and I could give you better advice on that book.

 

I would definitely do the main books, like The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Herodotus' Histories. I would avoid Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars. Many have avoided that book; there are selections in there that are pretty lurid in their descriptions of the s*xual tastes of the Caesars.

 

Some of your choices would depend upon the age and inclinations of your ds. If you've already worked through the Chronicles of Narnia, you could either choose to do them again for deeper study, or skip them because you're already familiar with them. That would allow more time for the other books.

 

Sorry to not be of more help! I could give you the list of books covered, but I wouldn't be able to give you great advice on which ones to cover, as we didn't get that much done last year.

 

 

I just came across your post - I am planning on using Omnibus II for my 9th grader this fall, she did Omnibus I in a tutorial last yr. Can you give me some advice - it seems overwhelming at first.

 

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!!:001_smile::001_smile:

[Katie144]

:001_smile:

I think you'll get more of a response there. I think there are several others besides me who have used Omnibus I. We didn't get that much done on this first book because in the fall our homeschool group embarked upon a huge project which took up inordinate amounts of time. Plus, we only did Omnibus every other day, which was a mistake. I really should have followed a daily plan. Things went much better with Omnibus II, and I could give you better advice on that book.

 

I would definitely do the main books, like The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Herodotus' Histories. I would avoid Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars. Many have avoided that book; there are selections in there that are pretty lurid in their descriptions of the s*xual tastes of the Caesars.

 

Some of your choices would depend upon the age and inclinations of your ds. If you've already worked through the Chronicles of Narnia, you could either choose to do them again for deeper study, or skip them because you're already familiar with them. That would allow more time for the other books.

 

Sorry to not be of more help! I could give you the list of books covered, but I wouldn't be able to give you great advice on which ones to cover, as we didn't get that much done last year.

 

 

I just came across your post - I am planning on using Omnibus II for my 9th grader this fall, she did Omnibus I in a tutorial last yr. Can you give me some advice - it seems overwhelming at first.

 

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!!:001_smile::001_smile:

[Michelle in MO]

:001_smile:

 

 

I just came across your post - I am planning on using Omnibus II for my 9th grader this fall, she did Omnibus I in a tutorial last yr. Can you give me some advice - it seems overwhelming at first.

 

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!!:001_smile::001_smile:

 

I asked this same question on the old forums a year or so ago, and Janie (from these boards) gave me really good advice, so I'll pass that along to you.

 

Looking at the list of books from the TOC, here's what we did of the Primary Readings:

 

Eusebius: The Church History

 

The Confessions of St. Augustine (Rex Warner's translation; this was advised by Janie, who said that it's more accurate that Omnibus's recommended edition. We did not have any trouble finding page numbers and section numbers.)

 

On the Incarnation of Our Lord - Don't forget to read C.S. Lewis's introduction!

 

The Creeds

 

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People - This is by Bede; we skipped it, as Janie recommended, although now I kind of wish we had done it, mostly because Bede really is considered to be one of the best historians of the Middle Ages. Had we done it, though, we would have been even more pressed for time!

 

The Rule of St. Benedict

 

Beowulf

 

The Song of Roland

 

The History of the Kings of Britain - Good for those interested in the history/myth surrounding King Arthur

 

Macbeth

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

 

The Divine Comedy: Inferno

 

The Canterbury Tales

 

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther - Per Janie's suggestion, we substituted this for VP's The Bondage of the Will, which is much more heavily theological. The latter probably would have really bored my girls. We read this as a history/biography at the end; I didn't require any testing on this book. I think Roland Bainton, although a Lutheran historian, gives a pretty accurate description of Luther, the man. The book is also helpful for probably more of a Lutheran perspective on the Reformation.

 

Of the Secondary Readings, we did the following:

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

 

Henry V

 

Richard III

 

Following this schedule, it took us approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours per day. Had we done every book, I would have started right at the beginning of August and gone straight through to the end of May. It's a hefty schedule.

 

We skipped many of the Secondary Readings because both older girls had already read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings several times and were very familiar with the stories.

 

If you're looking to give the full three credits that VP recommends (history, theology, and literature), you would need to cover every book that they recommend. As it was, we still followed their schedule that you can print out from the Teacher's CD.

 

Generally speaking, on the historical books, I used VP's Evaluations (from the Teacher's CD) for that book, and for the literature books, I assigned one of the Summa essays and had the girls submit their writing to Cindy Marsch (which I mentioned above).

 

I gave them two full credits for the class, for the way we did it. Oh---we substituted World History: A Human Odyssey by Spielvogel for Western Civilization, and I made them read entire chapters, not just the little sections of readings from the text that VP recommends.

 

HTH!