Tell me about VP Self Paced (on sale now)

[ExcitedMama]

I’ve heard of it but never investigated before. It’s on sale now, is this the only time of year it goes on sale? I was very impressed with the sample video lessons I watched on the Bible and DS 9 enjoyed them. Unfortunately our laptop is pretty old and slow so I haven’t tried to watch the history lessons since I can’t watch them on the iPad. Any chance the history lessons are going to be available on an iPad soon?

Does a child generally do one lesson at a time in either subject? I think DS would enjoy working independently. Did it hold your child’s interest? What age would you recommend? How long did it take to complete the courses? Are the earlier courses easier and quicker? I’m wondering if the first Bible course would be done quickly. If I bought the first two would I be able to pause the second one and he would still have 12 months to do it or is 12 months from purchase?

I really enjoy doing history with DS and reading him SOTW and side reading of biographies or stories for that time period. Would doing both be overkill? Do you need to do the younger grade levels to be prepared for the Omnibus level? Could I just have DS do the Omnibus level for his second round of history? I’m considering just doing the Bible now. 

How easy is it to check your child’s progress and see what they are doing? Could I log in and watch the videos and skip activities and tests without messing up his profress? The first level Bible lesson on The Garden of Eden looked like something that DD 6 would enjoy. The reading would be too advanced for her but could I show her the videos without messing up his progress?

I would love to hear all about your experience with any of the levels and subjects so I can get a better idea. Thanks so much!

[PeterPan]

There's an active VP FB group, so I would definitely carry your questions over there. Afaik, no there won't be a way to do it on the ipad. A basic chromebook, anything should be able to do it. You might try running something to clean your laptop to see if that helps. Probably the issue is the graphics card, which means a newer device.

No, the VP bible and history self-paced are full-year courses. You actually can do that at your own pace, faster if you want, sure. My dd did them as they came out when she was older, and she could do an entire course in a month if she really worked at it. But that was working like 2 1/2 hours a day, lol. It's the full 30-some weeks (32? 32? I forget) with age-appropriate lessons for every day. It assumes you'll buy the cards, which include extra readings, and the supplemental materials with the lessons will give you more suggested readings by age/grade level. 

VP has a focus on memory work, so they're giving a lot of context to the memory work they're doing. No, the account (again, afaik) is not set up as an administrator with multiple students and unlimited access. You're buying a time through of access. You can probably rewatch something. You cannot skip tasks or lessons unless you contact them and the specifically do that specific thing for you. It's a course and you work through it. Some people do pair their dc, yes. Your call as to whether that's good or not.

They'll run the sale now through whenever, but it usually dries up into fall. So the window is now, yes. 

What you might do is buy the first course now, begin now, and buy a 2nd course if you project reasonably that that will be useful for you. You can stagger start/expiration dates as well I think.

[ByGrace3]

They usually offer the sale about twice a year. You actually can run it on your ipad but you need to purchase an app that can run flash. We have one, I think it is called "Puffin"? 

We have used several years of it, and will be going back to it next year. There are pros and cons. 

Pros:

It is independent

Kids enjoy it for the most part

Content is good

Independent. . . did I say that? it's important enough to me to say twice 😉

Grades and progress are easy to see

web-based so can be accessed from anywhere

Cons:

The focus on dates. I didn't find this necessary and there is a BIG focus on dates. 

The games. My ds was ok with them but my dd found them cumbersome. I wish there was a way to skip them, but there is not. 

You cannot skip around (you can review previously done lessons, but not skip forward)

 

______________________________________________

I was excited to get the email as I plan to purchase Bible and history for my younger dd and Omnibus 1 for older dd and ds. I have found that I cannot teach everything every year, so this has become a great way to take the pressure off of me. For example this year I taught history and they did self paced science. Next year I will teach science and they will do self paced history. If it weren't for the focus on dates and games we would probably never have taken a break, 

Oh, and a second child can come behind the first and do the program. The grades are only recorded for the first person so make sure the right one gets access first.  And you cannot change grades, and the only way to fix things if there is a glitch is to call. This happened maybe 2 or 3 times over the few years we used the self paced and the phone call was quick and painless and they fixed it easily. 

 

[SoCal_Bear]

There are sales at mulitple times during the year. I seem to remember a sale going on sometimes during the summer. It's not always predictable though. You can delay the start date, but usually there is a time limit they place of how late you can schedule the start date. Unless they have changed that policy, I am guessing for this sale, you would have to probably schedule a start by 9/1. I'm sure though that there will be at least a sale or two before you finish the first course unless you are super fast.

No, you don't have to do the history and Bible to do Omnibus. Even though we've done all of history and Bible, I didn't opt to go with Omnibus because I am looking for more interaction and discussion with Great Books.

If you want it to be independent, then when they can read. VP recommends starting at 2nd grade.
 

[PeterPan]

On March 4, 2019 at 6:31 PM, ByGrace3 said:

You actually can run it on your ipad but you need to purchase an app that can run flash.

Ooo, how did I miss this! And, total aside, you can run an ipad on ethernet instead of wifi. Wow that would be fun if ds could do the VP stuff. I don't know if he would or not. Maybe? He's really coming along. Have you done the Bible as well? Back when I did it there was only the history. I should have him do the samples today and see, hehe...

[PeterPan]

On March 4, 2019 at 6:55 PM, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

I only have used the Bible so far

So you like it?  Well I guess you must since you're doing it, lol. I need to go look!

[ExcitedMama]

ByGrace3 thanks so much for recommending Puffin! I was able to watch the history samples with it on my iPad. I was not able to do any of the games though, do you have any problems with that? I’m not sure if it’s a sample problem or a compatibility problem. I only downloaded the free app but there’s a pro app too, is that one that much better? Is the history one old than the Bible one? The image quality does not seem as good. 

[ByGrace3]

9 minutes ago, ExcitedMama said:

ByGrace3 thanks so much for recommending Puffin! I was able to watch the history samples with it on my iPad. I was not able to do any of the games though, do you have any problems with that? I’m not sure if it’s a sample problem or a compatibility problem. I only downloaded the free app but there’s a pro app too, is that one that much better? Is the history one old than the Bible one? The image quality does not seem as good. 

 

I'm sorry, I don't remember, and unfortunately it has been a few years since we have used it, and I don't currently have any kids using VP. 

[Meadowlark]

We used the first one, Ancients a few years ago. I can honestly tell you that my kids retained absolutely NOTHING from it. I do admit that they were 3rd and 2nd grade (and now 5th and 6th) but they didn't seem to understand it then, and barely even remember taking the class now. I also wasn't a fan because of the constant sarcasm and bickering type stuff back and forth. The characters seemed to like to throw jabs at each other and I just thought it was inappropriate for the age group it was geered to. We finished the year and gave it up.

[Lucy the Valiant]

Also, a little-known-fact about Omnibus Self-Paced is that it does have an "Audit Mode" which allows kids to jump around between lessons at will. It does not create a "grade" for the student in Audit Mode, and cannot be changed back into regular mode, but for our purposes and the way we used it, audit mode was IDEAL. I had to call them and talk it over before the customer service guy let me do that, but it was great. We had 2-3 kids watching the Omnibus videos at once and then writing their own papers in response; that was a favorite that year, for sure (we skipped some of the heavier theology as our students were younger at the time but old enough to really appreciate the lit & historical context).

[ByGrace3]

13 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

Also, a little-known-fact about Omnibus Self-Paced is that it does have an "Audit Mode" which allows kids to jump around between lessons at will. It does not create a "grade" for the student in Audit Mode, and cannot be changed back into regular mode, but for our purposes and the way we used it, audit mode was IDEAL. I had to call them and talk it over before the customer service guy let me do that, but it was great. We had 2-3 kids watching the Omnibus videos at once and then writing their own papers in response; that was a favorite that year, for sure (we skipped some of the heavier theology as our students were younger at the time but old enough to really appreciate the lit & historical context).

This is awesome to hear! If we do Omnibus self paced and skip a few books, will it seem disjointed? I VERY much want to do omni with my kids, but I want to seriously downsize the reading list. Think maybe cut at least a third of the primary books. . . I want to spread them out and enjoy it and dig deeper. Is this possible with audit mode??? Would it be beneficial at all to watch all the videos but just not read everything? Yay for this option staying on the table! 

[PeterPan]

15 hours ago, Meadowlark said:

We used the first one, Ancients a few years ago. I can honestly tell you that my kids retained absolutely NOTHING from it. I do admit that they were 3rd and 2nd grade (and now 5th and 6th) but they didn't seem to understand it then, and barely even remember taking the class now. I also wasn't a fan because of the constant sarcasm and bickering type stuff back and forth. The characters seemed to like to throw jabs at each other and I just thought it was inappropriate for the age group it was geered to. We finished the year and gave it up.

I'm sorry that happened, but it does make sense. My dd was older when she did the course. My ds is very different, and I would see where that could happen with him.

[Lucy the Valiant]

7 hours ago, ByGrace3 said:

This is awesome to hear! If we do Omnibus self paced and skip a few books, will it seem disjointed? I VERY much want to do omni with my kids, but I want to seriously downsize the reading list. Think maybe cut at least a third of the primary books. . . I want to spread them out and enjoy it and dig deeper. Is this possible with audit mode??? Would it be beneficial at all to watch all the videos but just not read everything? Yay for this option staying on the table! 

 

I'm sure there are a lot of different answers to this, but for our family (in Omnibus II), yes, this way works! We wanted to skip some of the heavy theology at the beginning (in primary) and spend lots of extra time on the literature units later on. So we listed out the ones we wanted to do, in order of priority, and when we ran out of time, we quit. It was PERFECT for the way we wanted to use it. 

We do not do the self-paced course for literature, but we do read most of the books on the secondary list. 

We did do the entire course in Omnibus III - we do things differently year by year over here. 😉