Omnibus Musing

[Beth in Central TX]

I'm using a modified Omnibus I schedule for my 7th grader this year. I'm thinking of modifying Omnibus II for 8th grade and Omnibus III for 9th grade.

 

Instead of moving into Omnibus IV-VI (assuming their available when I get there), could I just go through Omnibus I to III for 10th to 12th and pick up the books we are skipping in the younger grades?

 

For those of you already in High School, do you think this would work? Any cons I'm not considering?

 

I appreciate any advice or insight you all have.

 

Thanks!

~Beth

[Jami]

Beth, I'm certainly not using Omnibus yet, but it was my understanding that some of the books for IV-VI would be repeats of I-III anyway, but at a deeper (rhetoric) level. Not all of course, but some. So you may find that some of those books from the first go round are planned to be covered in the later volumes anyway.

[Jean in Wisc]

I use it as literature and skip some of the history and theology books. I would not be interested in going back to do the titles I skipped. If you are just making decision on the difficulty level, then, perhaps, you'd prefer to do it as you suggest.

 

I would not use all the questions and assignments in these books at higher grade levels--the discussions are for younger children. You could still do the books, though, and pick and choose what you want to do along side the reading.

 

Jean

[Michelle in MO]

I'm using a modified Omnibus I schedule for my 7th grader this year. I'm thinking of modifying Omnibus II for 8th grade and Omnibus III for 9th grade.

 

Instead of moving into Omnibus IV-VI (assuming their available when I get there), could I just go through Omnibus I to III for 10th to 12th and pick up the books we are skipping in the younger grades?

 

For those of you already in High School, do you think this would work? Any cons I'm not considering?

 

I appreciate any advice or insight you all have.

 

Thanks!

~Beth

 

from Omnibus I-III that you didn't cover in the first go-around. I think the pros would be that you wouldn't overwhelm your 7th through 9th graders. I think it's possible to do all of Omnibus for 7th through 9th grades, but it can be difficult.

 

I'm almost certain that Omnibus IV-VI will cover different books. If you look at the VP catalog, different literature selections are indicated, so if you decided to do Omnibus IV-VI you would be covering the same periods of time but with different works. That aspect is appealing to me. Another difference with the Omnibus IV-VI books would most likely be that the literature covered would be at a deeper (rhetoric) level, as another poster already stated. I haven't seen Omnibus IV, although I understand that it is to be published sometime this year. The rhetoric level books might cover more writing, perhaps, or more in-depth discussions or debates. You might also send an e-mail to VP's Scholars Online program and ask them if they can explain more of the distinctions between Omnibus I-III and Omnibus IV-VI.

 

If you decide to stick with Omnibus I-III and use the books from 7th through 12th grades, I would somehow make a distinction on a high school transcript between your first year of Omnibus I (say, 7th grade) and your second year of Omnibus I (i.e., 10th grade). I'm not sure how I would phrase that on a transcript, but I would make sure that schools would understand that you didn't repeat 7th grade again in 10th grade, etc. Of course, colleges would look at high school transcripts, not middle school years, but I would still cover my bases there.

 

HTH!

[Beth in Central TX]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I do have a few items to consider for Omnibus IV-VI: (1) knowing the different books used, (2) determining the value added with the deeper rhetoric level questions, and (3) showing the Omnibus work on a transcript (not something that crosses my radar screen yet).

 

I did skip a few of the Omnibus I books because of the mature themes, but they are books I want to discuss before my boys head off to college. I won't go back to some of the theology books that I skipped.

 

I'm not quite as concerned about the writing aspect of Omnibus IV-VI since I will still continue to use CW in conjuction with Omnibus.

 

My frugal side looks at the $300 (or more) for Omnibus IV-VI, and I really don't see a lot of books in the Veritas Press catalog for 10th -12th grades: 9 books for 10th, 14 for 11th, and 17 books for 12th. Of course, they can add more books as they continue to develop the Omnibus series.

 

I think I'll wait for Omnibus IV comes out and compare it to Omnibus I to see what changes are made, and whether or not it's worth the investment.

 

I had thoughts of abandoning Omnibus, but I think I'll continue to use is some modified form or another. I wish knowing the right thing to do was more apparent.

 

Many, many thanks!

~Beth

[Michelle in MO]

It sounds like a good plan, Beth. We never did all of Omnibus I or II, either. The only other thought I had was that doing all of Omnibus I through III is equvalent to three full credits: one each in literature, history, and theology. If you still want to award your children three full credits for high school in each subject (in the 9th through 12th grade years) and you don't do all of Omnibus I-III, then just make sure you either substitute other literature books, or do additional reading for history, and also additional reading and work for theology.

 

HTH!