Omni 1 users -- how's it going? (Beth in TX, Michelle AL, etc) Intense?

[Beth in SW WA]

I started reading Sophocles yesterday. Somehow I missed that gem in high school and college. I've heard references to the Oedipus complex over the years, but had no clue what it was about. Now I think I get it.

 

My kids will be 7th & 9th next year. Mr. Etter from Veritas Scholars Online emailed me the syllabus for Omni 1 and it looks intense. I can't imagine myself giving my kids a good GB education w/o help from an "expert" -- even though the answers are on the Omni 1 teacher CD. But I wonder if they will be able to keep up w/ that reading schedule.

 

What is your schedule like? How many credits are you assigning?

 

Thanks in advance! :)

[Cindy in Indy]

Hi Beth,

My friend and are are partnering to teach our kids Omnibus 1. We have 5 students (2 7th graders and 3 9th graders) in our discussion group, which meets once a week for 1.5 hours.

 

We chopped the Omnibus 1 reading schedule, eliminating most of the secondary books (they had already covered Narnia books in Starting Points, for example), eliminating much of the Bible reading (we kept Genesis, Isaiah, and Romans), and even shortening some of the primary book readings. For example we read books 1 and 7 of Herodotus, one pair out of Plutarch, Oedipus the King (not the other 2), and Agamemnon (it was hard to give up Libation Bearers and Eumenides - the only surviving intact trilogy from ancient drama).

 

Our students are getting a "survey" of ancient literature. We compare and contrast the ancient themes and beliefs to our Biblical worldview. We're not going DEEP, but we're doing what we can. They can go deeper in college and adult learning.

 

We collect the same assignments from all students, but we expect better writing (organization, content, and style) from our 9th graders.

 

I plan to give my son 1 history credit (ancient history) and 1 literature credit. I should probably have him read from Spielvogel to beef up the history. He could handle more reading, but I don't own Spielvogel, and my library doesn't have it.

 

I have used the Teaching Company lectures to give me additional background on this material (none of which was familiar to me before we started - I didn't even know how to pronounce the names!)

 

The biggest drawback to our arrangement is our discussion group meets only weekly (instead of daily, like they do at Veritas Academy). We could cover more and go deeper if we met daily, but we don't have time to do that! :tongue_smilie: The students do enjoy the discussion group very much.

 

I noticed you had posted about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight recently. I didn't read all the replies, but I couldn't slog through it either. It's one I'll cut next year from Omnibus 2!

 

Hope this helps,

Cindy in Indy

[Beth in Central TX]

I have to say that I'm very pleased with Omnibus I this year. My 7th grader balked with the amount of writing at first, but he's adjusted well. The other day he told that he actually likes writing the essays because he learns a lot from the process. I was surprised at this unsolicited comment, but relieved that he sees the benefit from the assignments I schedule. This year I require 1 essay and 1 paragraph a week in Omnibus I. The program calls for 2 essays, but I scale one of them back to a paragraph since he also has a writing project each week in CW Homer.

 

I did modify the readings for my son because I felt that a lot of the books had themes that were too mature for him right now. I plan to go back and pick those up his senior year. I scheduled 23 books from Omnibus I over 32 weeks this school year. We'll either finish early or spread out some of the books at the end of the year.

 

I'm also pleased with the discussions we are having. At the beginning of the year, I was doing a lot of talking, but my son is catching on to the Socratic dialogue approach, and he's looking for more issues to discussion as he reads and thinks about the questions.

 

Thanks for asking! I'm feel really comfortable and confident in our homeschool this year. I was a little apprehensive as we moved into the junior high world, but other than an increase in the writing assignments, there really hasn't been much difference in our day-to-day interactions.

 

ETA: I'm not assigning any credit for this since I modified the program, and my son is only in 7th grade.

[Michelle in AL]

Hi Beth, we're loving Omnibus and I can truly see a difference in my kids this yr-their vocabulary has increased, their writing is much improved (this is due to other programs used too) and they are thinking through other issues more analytically. They enjoy discussion.

 

We have adjusted the schedule. I have 2 that enjoy reading and read a fair amount. They both still read for enjoyment on their own. We did cut out the Bible portion after 1 Samuel. My oldest wasn't keeping up and I decided it was not a good thing to rush through the Bible :001_huh:

 

So far we've read:

Genesis (correlates well with Until We Have Faces)

Exodus

Epic Of Gilgamesh

Code of Hammurabi & Moses-portions to prevent :tongue_smilie:

The Odyssey

A Day in Old Athens ~ WTM recommendation, not Omnibus

We'll start Histories of Herodotus next week and do Books 1,2 & 7

 

For secondary books I'm teaching a class on the C.S. Lewis selections. I add Literary elements & writing into this class, since I think omnibus is lacking in this area. This class is 2 hrs/week.

 

We use Spielvogel's Human Odyssey and are reading all of the Ancient history sections.

 

This is how the credits broke down for us in real life, based on time spent:

1 credit English based on secondary readings, my own addition or literature elements, writing, vocab, grammar and spelling.

 

1 credit Great Books~The Ancients (literature elective)

 

1 credit Ancient history

 

I can't imagine doing both portions (primary & secondary) as written without being overwhelmed. One portion as written would be doable at our house. I think an online class or home co-op works great with this. My students love the C.S. Lewis class and I hope it is producing more analytical readers, you never know though.

[Beth in SW WA]

 

I noticed you had posted about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight recently. I didn't read all the replies, but I couldn't slog through it either. It's one I'll cut next year from Omnibus 2!

 

Hope this helps,

Cindy in Indy

 

Cindy,

Don't cut out Sir Gawain from Omni II! It was wonderful when I finally got a hang of it (thanks to help here). My kids thoroughly enjoyed it also.

[Beth in SW WA]

Thank you, ladies, for your responses. I've got a lot of work to do to get ready for this next year.

 

Back to the books....:)

[SonshineLearner]

So, I've read on some of the other threads that Omnibus I has some material that would be suited for older students. If you had a choice, would you do Omnibus II and III before Omnibus I?

I've asked other places...but just in case I missed anyone:-) Is anyone doing Omni as a group? We're looking at doing is once a week, with a "teacher".

Carrie:-)

[Nissi]

We began the series with Omnibus II and are loving it. We will most probably continue with Omnibus III and then go back to Omnibus I.

[Cindy in Indy]

Cindy,

Don't cut out Sir Gawain from Omni II! It was wonderful when I finally got a hang of it (thanks to help here). My kids thoroughly enjoyed it also.

 

All right Beth,

I'm listening. :bigear: I'll go back and read your Sir Gawain thread to get some help. Thanks for your input/advice. Wouldn't want to miss out on a good one.

Cindy

[Beth in SW WA]

Hi gang,

I just came back to this thread and re-read it again because I'm thinking through our Omni course load for next year (and deciding what I'm going to print from the TM cd).

 

What will I need to give this an English Lit & Comp credit? Should I also do a writing program like CW w/ this? Or just have ds write about the ancient lit & ancient history (which is SO much easier on me). I love to double-dip on subjects to decrease my work-load. :)

 

How does this look?

 

1 credit -- Ancient History w/ Spielvogel's HO text, study guide & tests

1 credit -- Ancient Literature "survey" w/ random Omni 1 selections & The Iliad w/ Drew's Iliad study guide

.5 credit -- Composition (vocab, writing, _____)

1 credit -- Bible/Theology w/ Omni 1 selections & some of my own choosing

 

Thanks a million, you guys!!

[Cindy in Indy]

Beth,

Are you still planning to do Omni I with Veritas on-line? What do they require for writing?

 

We require our students to hand in an essay each week. (Sometimes it's a progymnasmata; other times it's a 5-paragraph essay answering a summa.) We also assign 10 vocab words from the reading each week. They have to write out the definition and use in a sentence. Sometimes we quiz them on the vocab.

 

On our own, we are using the Lively Art of Writing (Lucille Vaughn Payne) to strengthen my 14ds' essay-writing skills. Then he puts his new skills into practice on his Omnibus essay. We will also cover Strunk and White's Elements of Style this year. I think the Lively Art assignments plus the Omnibus essays/vocab merit 1 Composition credit.

 

I also plan to give 1 credit for Ancient Literature and 1 credit for Ancient History.

 

Cindy in Indy

Edited December 12, 2008 by Cindy in Indy

[Beth in SW WA]

Cindy,

Yes, we are doing Omni 1 next year.

 

No, I don't think we are doing Mr. Etter's class because of these reasons:

 

I'm adding/taking away some of the Omni readings.

 

I really want to do Drew's Iliad study guide :)

 

I also want to use HO and all the bells/whistles that accompany that book. Even the map work looks great in HO.

 

Mr. Etter said they do 4-5 papers per year and he said it was not sufficient for a writing program, in his opinion.

 

Anyway, I just bought Lively Art of Writing for $7 from Amazon. My dc are reading Elements of Style this week.

 

Maybe I will have plenty to work with after all.

 

Did you print out the TM?

 

Thanks Cindy!

[Cindy in Indy]

Beth,

I print out the pages for the sections I'm covering. I like to have the TM answers handy, but I sometimes take a different slant, so I don't adhere to the TM answers slavishly. I 3-hole punch my printed sheets and add them to my big binder with my notes, assignments, other resources (maps, additional info, etc.) Then it's all in one place when I go to class. One inconvenience is that the TM page numbers don't match the student text page numbers, so I have to make a note to have the students look at "the bottom of p. 137" etc. when I want them to read a quote or specific question aloud.)

 

I applaud your decision to include the Iliad. I know my son would have liked it.

 

Is HO better than Western Civilization? They're both Spielvogel, correct? I'm thinking of taking the plunge, but haven't done the research to know which to purchase. (Hoping to find a second-hand copy... don't know if that's a possibility.)

 

Cindy

[Beth in SW WA]

Thanks, Cindy.

 

I'm opting for HO because I got the Texas TM & text & study guide & quizes for a great deal. AND it looks awesome. My ds would not enjoy Western Civ as a 9th grader. I think HO will be a better fit. Plus, its pick-up-and-go.

 

I forgot to mention that I'm also adding SWB's HOAW random chapters. Its such a good book!

 

As for The Iliad, I'm tracking down the audio and probably TTC lectures.

 

I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I still need to purchase Gilgamesh and a couple other books. Otherwise, I've got both primary & secondary ready to go.