Omnibus users: Can you share your schedule?

[Kathie in VA]

I was wondering what my days might look like if I used Omnibus III next year with my rising 8th and 7th graders. Someone said that it's about 3 hours a day. How does this break down?

 

tia

[Julie in GA]

And before I get into it, I thought you'd want to know that the online program for Omnibus is 3 hours per week, in addition to the reading & writing assignments. That averages out to about an hour (or a bit more) per day.

 

My 13yo ds is currently using Omnibus II, and will do Omnibus III via the Online Scholars program next year. Omnibus breaks the assignments down into a basic daily pattern of: activity/writing assignment + reading assignment. (So each day, you're doing work related to what you read the previous day, and then reading ahead to be ready for the next day's work.)

 

We like to switch it, and begin with a reading assignment, followed by its related activity in the same day. The reading can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes, followed by questions that can take 15-30 minutes to answer and discuss. It averages out to 45 min to 1 hour per day for my son (who is a fast reader).

 

Questions are usually given in 3 categories: text analysis, cultural analysis, and Biblical analysis. We often skip the cultural analysis, or just look at it briefly. Questions like "how does the world view X?" annoy me, because any answer would be a guess at best (just my opinion). Still, I know what they're getting at, so we talk about these occasionally, basing our answers on what we read in news magazines, or see on TV or in movies.

 

Oops - got off track. Okay, so in addition to the regular routine of the three kinds of questions, every few days there will be a "recitation." This is basically a comprehension quiz, which can be done orally, or in writing. There are also several optional activities and essay assignments. We've been skipping these, because he's doing CW as well, but will begin to "ramp up" this spring, in order to be ready for the online course.

 

One more thing (if you make it this far -- sorry for the length of this post). Don't feel like you have to do every book. If you want to skip a book, it's fine. If it makes things easier, concentrate on the primary resources, and assign some of the secondary resources as "fun" reading (w/ no assignments connected to them).

 

HTH,

[Kathie in VA]

Thank you for all your help. No I don't think your post was too long, it was very helpful. I'd love to take the online course next year, but I'll have to see how my funds lines up. There is also a co-op about an hour away that is using Omni; so I'm considering that as well (although I think they will be on Omni II not III).

 

Well, time for me to get back to focusing on this year.

 

thanks again!