Melissa B Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Before I register my dds for VP's self-paced Omnibus, are there any similar self-paced history or literature classes with in-depth daily videos, online quizzes, reading assignments, etc? I would really prefer classes that are secular or lean more toward Catholicism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anne1456 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I'm Catholic, and I tried Omnibus self-paced last year with my son last year and I really, really didn't like it. There was too much religion, even in places where I didn't think it wasn't necessary or important. For the books of the Bible I expected it, but the units about non-Biblical works were just as pervasive. For example when we did the Epic of Gilgamesh every time Etter mentioned the Mesopotamian gods he had the say something about "remember these are pagan gods, not the one true god" like there was any chance students of high school age wouldn't get that, and would be rushing off to worship these gods. It struck my son as kind of patronizing. But the biggest thing we didn't like is almost all the discussions and videos were focused on religion. There was an entire lecture about how Gilgamesh was not like Christ, which in my opinion was not the most important thing to take out of that Epic. Another thing I didn't like is that you have to go through it in order. So you can't just skip a book you aren't interested in. We ditched Omnibus after the Epic of Gilgamesh, so maybe it gets better, but my son wouldn't do it after that. Now we are using Roman Roads, and I love this curriculum. It is odd, because both are coming from the same conservative Protestant background, but Roman Roads is focused on the literature and history. The videos are about the historical background and interpretting and understand the works, not discussing what the Biblical lessons we can learn from the works. We have done the first two units which are Homer and Greek plays, and the religious content is not pervasive and only there when it makes sense. So I'd suggest you consider that curriculum. And I know right now Roman Roads is running some blog giveaways for the first unit of the Romans, so you could look for those. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Thanks, Anne. The pervasiveness of the author's religious views is our major concern and Roman Roads looks interesting. Unfortunately, I forgot to add that we are looking for modern history and would be using Omnibus III. The website states that the modern history portion of Roman Roads won't be ready until 2016. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anne1456 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Well I can't help with Modern, I can't think of anything else online that might cover that. I did want to clarify that the lectures we watched were very respectful of other beliefs and other cultures, so I wouldn't necessarily worry that Omnibus would be anti-Catholic the way something like Bob Jones is. There wasn't even much I theologically disagreed with in the course, it was just too much theology and not enough literature and history. The lectures and discussion topics online followed the Omnibus I book very closely, so maybe you should check out the Omnibus III book, and see what the discussion topics are in there so you can decide if it will work for you. I think there are sample chapters available free online. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenDaisies Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 This was just in a newsletter that Kolbe sent out: NEW for 2015! Online Self-Paced Courses These full-year courses are recordings (asynchronous) of our online courses and are delivered electronically. Students will have access to the recordings for one full school year. Each course includes the corresponding home school syllabus and course plan, however online instructors were given liberty to make some changes to adapt the home school course for the online environment. These courses are highly flexible as students can watch recordings and complete assignments at their own pace. Parents can choose to use these courses towards a Kolbe diploma by choosing to full enroll the student. Each online self-paced course enrollment will result in a discount toward Full Enrollment fees. Fully enrolled students completing Online Self-Paced courses will receive credit on their transcripts towards the diploma requirements for any of the three types of diplomas that Kolbe offers. Most Suitable for grades 7-12. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 This was just in a newsletter that Kolbe sent out: NEW for 2015! Online Self-Paced Courses These full-year courses are recordings (asynchronous) of our online courses and are delivered electronically. Students will have access to the recordings for one full school year. Each course includes the corresponding home school syllabus and course plan, however online instructors were given liberty to make some changes to adapt the home school course for the online environment. These courses are highly flexible as students can watch recordings and complete assignments at their own pace. Parents can choose to use these courses towards a Kolbe diploma by choosing to full enroll the student. Each online self-paced course enrollment will result in a discount toward Full Enrollment fees. Fully enrolled students completing Online Self-Paced courses will receive credit on their transcripts towards the diploma requirements for any of the three types of diplomas that Kolbe offers. Most Suitable for grades 7-12. This sounds very promising! We are already using Kolbe, so we could slide right in to their modern studies class. I don't know how I missed that they would be offering self-paced classes this fall. I don't see any additional information on the website yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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