I'm trying to get a feel for Omnibus, but goodness sakes! It's hard when there is

[imeverywoman]

next to nothing on Veritas' website, other than the sample of Genesis. If you have used it, loved it, hated it, would you mind sharing just a few thoughts with me?

 

Is it fairly evenly spread with history/literature/theology?

 

Does it 'feel' as though the student is getting just snipits of information and/or a brief exposure to the literature portions?

 

Is it more theologically centered, or does it do a fair job of exposing the student to the history/literature in each volume?

 

Are you satisfied with the critical thinking aspect of the curriculum?

 

Is it something a student would enjoy doing for her high school years, or is it tedious?

 

 

 

Thanks, y'all.

[Quiver0f10]

:lurk5:

[Michelle in AL]

We just finished Omnibus 1. I can try and answer some of your questions..

 

Is it fairly evenly spread with history/literature/theology?

I would say the books selected for yr 1 are evenly spread, as far as a fairly equal amt applying to each discipline. There is introductory information in Omnibus for each book. It will tell you the context in which the book is written as well as some information about the author. This information is also very heavy on Worldview. There worldview is reformed Christian in case that matters to you.

Does it 'feel' as though the student is getting just snipits of information and/or a brief exposure to the literature portions?

The students read the entire work, so I would say they definitely aren't getting snippets of literature. The reading assignments are fast paced. We slowed this down and omitted some books in order to be able to understand and enjoy the ones we chose.

 

Is it more theologically centered, or does it do a fair job of exposing the student to the history/literature in each volume?

I would say it is more theologically centered. The questions often ask you to interpret a portion of the work based on Biblical principles, but there is a good amount of discussion questions that aren't related to theology.

 

Are you satisfied with the critical thinking aspect of the curriculum?

Very much, it brings up discussions that force your student to state their beliefs and apply it to what they're reading.

 

Is it something a student would enjoy doing for her high school years, or is it tedious?

My kids very much enjoyed it once we pared down the reading. There was much complaining and some adjustments to made when they realized at the beginning of the year that they would have to read about 2 hrs/day. Some days were much less when we eliminated some books.

 

The only thing missing with Omnibus is the lack of teaching literary elements. It doesn't necessarily address plot lines, characterization, conflict, or theme.

[imeverywoman]

Looks like I'll be looking into this in the next week! I appreciate your time in answering my questions! :)

[laughing lioness]

We used Omni II this year and I would have to second Michelle's response. My son read each book completely. The intro's to the books are very well done and the discussion questions are intriguing and thought provoking.

I don't think it's a well rounded history program. They do not teach writing. Not enough lit criticism.

That being said my son has loved it and read some excellent books. We did slow down quite a bit so that we could add in an IEW theme based book and so that he could read each book thoroughly. We'll be continuing with Omnibus III- happy users here!

[Michelle in MO]

Michelle in AL has done an excellent job in summarizing my own thoughts about Omnibus I, and I would have to second laughing lioness's assessment of Omnibus II.

 

Overall, it's an excellent book, but it doesn't have quite enough history, IMO. There are plenty of historical books, but I would recommend that you have your child read the entire chapters in the Western Civilization history book, not just the snippets that Omnibus recommends. It doesn't teach writing---it's "understood" that the child knows how to write well by that point in time. It only briefly introduces the progymnasmata before expecting the child to imitate the progym. To me, this is a flaw in the program. It also doesn't teach literary devices---again, a flaw.

 

Overall, though, it's an excellent book, but I would read the entire chapters in the Spielvogel (Western Civ.) book, plus I would either have your dc write essays over each work, if they don't already understand how to write the progymnasmata exercises. We used SparkNotes to help with information literary devices for each work.

[Mommyfaithe]

We used Omni II this year and I would have to second Michelle's response. My son read each book completely. The intro's to the books are very well done and the discussion questions are intriguing and thought provoking.

I don't think it's a well rounded history program. They do not teach writing. Not enough lit criticism.

That being said my son has loved it and read some excellent books. We did slow down quite a bit so that we could add in an IEW theme based book and so that he could read each book thoroughly. We'll be continuing with Omnibus III- happy users here!

 

We used Omni 1 a few years ago and Omni 3 this year with VP online. (did our own thing for year 2.) Anyway, my son felt there was so much reading there was no time to think on the material. His words were a mile wide and an inch deep. That said, he really enjoyed the class, the discussions and the books in Omni 3. Also, we need to remember that Omni 1-3 is written for "middle school logic stage." IOW 7th-9th grades are to introduce and begin thinking about these Great books...many which will be re-read again and again through high school and college at deeper analytical levels.

 

I felt the material on Omni 1 was to ummmmmm risque' for 12 or 13 year olds. We skipped some of the books due to me pre-reading and NIXING them from the list. My kids just do not need to picture Ancient Greek perverts to get a grasp on the great books. The sexual content was pretty explicit in Epic of Gilgamesh (we just chose a different version, ) and in the Greek histories of which I skipped huge chunks . My rule was if it made me go EEEEWWWWW!!! I skipped it for him. I would give better examples, but it was 3 years ago and I blocked a lot of it from memory. :D

 

Anyway...Omnibus does have writing assignments but very little or no instruction as to how to complete the assignments. The Omni online class did not do ANY of these. I was VERY disappointed and had to assign my own writing assignments. I also had to have ds take a Write@home course to fill the void, which added another big expense on top of Omni course, book and reading material.

 

As far as history, we used Streams of Civilization and VP cards for Omnibus 1 & the online class used BJU American History to beef up the History portion of Omnibis 3. Unfortunately the only thing the online class had them do for the history text was read it. HUH???:tongue_smilie: I made ds answer the chap review questions at the end of the book. We will revisit American History in 11th grade and follow those up with either CLEP or AP exams.

 

 

I am looking forward to a look at Omnibus 4. Does anyone know when it will become available??

 

Anyway, all this to say that Ominibus can be what you make of it. I really love their essays on the books, the thought provoking questions and most of the lit picks. What I didn't like, we skipped without any problem. Whatever I felt was missing, I dealt with aore addind in. I did have to find online notes to discuss literary analysis, but I do not think VP was interested in analyzing at the target age group these books are written for. I hope the Omni 4-6 will cover lit analysis etc. I think Omni 1-3 was to provide the first 2 steps, ala How to Read a Book, elementary and inspectional readings saving the Analytical and syntopical readings for High School and college. At least that is my hope as I have not seen Omni 4 yet:001_smile:

 

HTH

Faithe

Edited May 10, 2009 by Mommyfaithe

[Kathy in MD]

After reading these reviews, I'm wondering why anyone uses it. Yet the reviewers seem to use it for several years. Why?

[laughing lioness]

This was our first year using it but we do plan to continue. I think that the reading selections are good, excellent in fact, to get a good overall sense of theology throughout history. That was what I was looking for.

[Mommyfaithe]

After reading these reviews, I'm wondering why anyone uses it. Yet the reviewers seem to use it for several years. Why?

 

PEER PRESSURE

 

I am kidding, but not really. Omnibus is great IF you take it for what it is...a book of study guides using the books Veritas Press thinks kids should read at any given grade level. These go in pretty nicely with WTM recommendations, especially if you are a Christian. I think Omnibus can hold my hand a bit while helping me to hold up these works to Biblical standards. Omnibus is NOT a textbook, but a guide. I think going into it, I haddifferent expectations than what I really received. I now see that Omni 1-3 is really a Dialectic stage guide even though the books read are extremely difficult reading for the most part. The books are meant to be read at the Elementary and Inspectional stages and are meant to be read again in later grades at the Analytical and Syntopical levels. These are not meant as a deep study in grades 7-9 BUT as an intro to get the feel for the Great Books and Great ideas of the past and some of the present.

 

As far as writng instruction etc. there really is none...VP expects that students of this age are writing well AND taking another English Grammar and Composition course. Omnibus is NOT an all inclusive Unit Study.

Credits CAN be earned in Literature, Theology and history depending on what assignments are given.

 

I think I stuck with VP (at least for Ancients and Moderns) because it helped me to teach the books I wanted to teach and my ds enjoyed the course. :D

 

We could have (and I certainly have used other materials to the same profit,)but, Omnibus filled the need for the child I chose it for.

 

 

HTH

Faithe

[Cedarmom]

I have enjoyed using it with my son. I use it as a guide. The questions are great for discussion. The essay questions are very direct, and covers things we discussed earlier in the book. The writing assignments are good ideas. For Omnibus I (my son was 13-14) my son needed a lot of guidance. Omnibus gives me a good springboard to base our discussions off of. We do slower reading then the text suggests, and consequently have not read all the books. I also supplement with Teaching Company, history spines, WEM, and Teaching the Classics.

 

One other thing that seems minor, is the book is beautiful. I think that mattered to my son. It looks like a real textbook, with awesome pictures. To my son it looked inviting.

[Kathie in VA]

I also supplement with Teaching Company, history spines, WEM, and Teaching the Classics.

 

 

 

hmm, If I go with Omni, I might also like to supplement with Teaching the Classics, ?WEM, and ?Teaching Company. Can you share how/when you incorporated these? Did you pick one of the Teaching Company DVD sets and view them weekly or just pick portions and viewed them as they fit what you read? How did you utilize Teaching the Classics and WEM?

 

Thanks for any guidance you can share! :bigear: