For Omnibus users

[Suzybearybake]

We will be starting Omnibus in the spring. My question is how to you schedule sessions? Do you do 1st semester primary and secondary books concurrently? Is there a way to do one session a day and still finish in a year? If anyone has specifics on how they plan out the year it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Moira in MA]

Here's what we've done for Omnibus I & 2:

I schedule 5 sessions primary and 3 session secondary each week plus associated reading. I really feel that the secondary reading shouldn't be dropped since is serves to shed light on the primary reading by giving another viewpoint, adding background or (occasionally) just fun.

In addition for each primary book and some of the secondary books, my dds create a context sheet and add dates to their timelines.

It is time consuming but not more than 45-90 minutes class time per day. It does count as 3 credits. The teachers CD has all the questions and suggested answers (I don't always agree and we talk about that too) so, other than reading along with the girls, my prep time is minimal.

HTH

[Anne in Hawaii]

Do you do 1st semester primary and secondary books concurrently? Is there a way to do one session a day and still finish in a year?

Like Moira, we do Primary books 5 days a week, and Secondary ones 3 days a week. We do one session a day, and you can finish it in a year if you're doing them both. We had to skip 2 books, I think, in Omnibus I last year because of some family emergencies, but this year in Omnibus II, we're on track to finish them all.

A helpful mp3 on Omnibus in the homeschool is available for purchase and download here (http://www.wordmp3.com/search.asp?itemid=3000).

[Julie in GA]

is to schedule sessions for the primary readings only, and let my ds read the secondary books "for fun" (Omnibus II). We've also skipped a couple of the books.

Next year he will take the Omnibus 3 course via Scholars Online. It meets for 3 hours per week, plus additional time to read & do writing assignments. He will only receive one credit for this, but if secondary books are added, the credits jump to 3. (Not sure why -- maybe being able to correlate the two gives an added benefit of a credit.)

The thought of getting 2 more credits by adding secondary books is making this very appealing, but we can't afford to do both online, so I may do the secondary books with him.

[Michelle in MO]

which is very helpful. I think it's under "Supplemental Resources" or something like that. You can print out their sample schedule and try to follow that. We did most of the Primary Reading and some of the Secondary Reading, but not all of it. However, from the comments that others have made, it's very "do-able"!