Omnibus Studies Vs. "the other way." Have you BTDT?

[LisaKinVA]

I've taken a look at the VP Omnibus I-III, and I really like what I've seen there.

 

My question goes something like this... Children who went this route from Middle to High School, were they well prepared for College? (I would think they would be, based upon the reading and thought process encouraged -- but is that "just me" putting my hopes there?) I know what to expect (more or less) from the way, say, the local PS does it. It's easy to measure, etc. How does one measure "success" in Omnibus?

 

My only other concern is the reading required, when you don't have a child who seems particularly interested in READING. Would I be setting us up for failure here?

 

Thoughts? Why did you go this route -- why didn't you?

[Kim in Appalachia]

but switched to Ambleside online for 9th grade.

 

There are a lot of good things about Omnibus. The book is well laid out, and the essays and writing are (I think) good preparation for college.

 

I think how well it prepares your child for college depends on your child. By using Ominibus you miss out on the in-depth reading that is done. You also miss out on normal study skills (of course, you could get that in a science course or other more textbook type course.)

 

Another factor would be you as the teacher. You have to be willing (and have the time) to have the conversations with your child. You to help your child dig deeper and teach him how to "think". You have to model learning from the books for your child.

 

I liked Omnibus, but it was not a good fit for my dd. She did fine with the reading. She could keep up with it and usually had a good grasp of what she read. Her problem is that she has no idea how to study, nor is she good a digging out details from a book. She is good at the "big" picture and overall themes.

 

If your child doesn't like to read, Omnibus could be torture. But, you could still make it work. You can cut out some of the books, get some books on audio, and used abridged books for others.

 

If you want to do a Great Books study, Omnibus is a huge help. You will need to decide what will work for your child. You may want his input as well. They also offer the course online, which could help with accountiblity issues (which can be a problem homeschooled children, not just people using Omnibus).

 

HTH

[Michelle in AL]

Hi Lisa, I just started using Omnibus this yr and teach a co-op class on the secondary readings. Before that I've followed a classical education loosely without adding in Latin.

 

I can tell you the improvements I've seen in my two this yr. Their vocabulary has increased after reading a few of the books in yr 1 along with their enjoyment of reading. They also seem to be thinking critically about many more issues, such as the govt and the economy. This could be due to the excitement of the election or to the emphasis of analysis in Omnibus.

 

Their tolerance for reading large amounts at a time has increased and they truly don't mind the amount now. We do slow down if needed. If you have someone who doesn't enjoy reading, you can just do the primary readings or a few of each. Use it as it works for you and don't be a slave to it.

 

The co-op class has been the most successful of all. This is because they can discuss the books as a group. The class enjoys the in depth questions and they're all learning to think as they read.

 

I have added a lot of different resources to Omnibus. I think Omnibus falls short in literary elements and in teaching genres of literature so I add that in. I also like the Omnibus writing assignments, but add in extra from other sources too.

[Michelle in MO]

it is a well laid-out, organized program. I loved the Teacher's CD, and the student books are beautiful.

 

The reading load is heavy. We never did all of Omnibus, and during the second year we progressed much better than the first year. I would definitely say Omnibus will prepare your child well for college, and even though there are answers on the Teacher's CD, you can obviously jump "off script" for your own thoughts and interpretations, which I did frequently. So, you have that crutch, but as you become more comfortable and familiar with the works, you can take your liberty.

 

I would say that if your student doesn't love to read that I would definitely recommend choosing only certain books to read, depending upon their reading strength (i.e., speed and comprehension). In that case, you could count it as a literature credit, depending upon how many hours you put into it. If you do all of Omnibus, it counts as three credits: one each for history, literature, and theology. Last year my girls did over 450 hours in English alone, but that was including vocabulary, grammar, writing, and Omnibus. I counted some of the Omnibus hours towards history, but included those hours with our reading in the Spielvogel book (World History, not Western Civ.). I counted the other hours of Omnibus as a separate literature credit, so I gave them two English credits: one just in English (vocab., grammar, and writing) and one in literature.

 

It is good to love reading and be a strong reader in order to do all of Omnibus, but it can certainly be done if you tweak the program. I also did not care for the writing assignments in Omnibus all the time, and I changed them around as well, as needed. My minor gripe about Omnibus is that, being classical, they try to introduce the progymnasmata in Omnibus. However, these writing exercises are not necessarily tackled in order as they would normally be in a course that tackles the progymnasmata orderly and methodically, as they should be. The progym. are designed to be sequential, logical writing exercises that build a student up to writing well. I didn't find that Omnibus did that. One caveat here: perhaps those who use Veritas Press's materials all the way through find their students well prepared to tackle Omnibus as is, including the writing exercises.

 

What I did for writing was to pick one or two of the Summa discussion/essay exercises and assign that to the girls. I would set certain requirements of my own for their papers, and have them submit their papers to Cindy Marsch for an evaluation. That helped tremendously.

 

If you have any other questions, please ask.

[Cedarmom]

Well we have not hit college yet so I can't answer that. I sure hope it's preparing him. I can say some things he has learned. He has learned that he can read difficult material, he is learning how study books, he is learning how to compare what the Bible says to what authors say, he has learned to compare what one author says to another and that he loves medieval literature.

 

I consider it a success if we have pretty good discussions (he's not a great talker-we go for good discussions not great) and if he can do an essay afterward. The thing I like about Omnibus is they have the discussion questions for you. At the end of each book, it has a test. The test has one sentence answers, one paragraph and longer essay. It has some writing interspersed througout the readings, but not a lot of writing instruction.