Talk to me about Omnibus - Please

[Cadam]

This is a great books study right? What can you tell me about it?

Do you have to start it in 7th grade to really use it fully?

How is it to teach Omnibus?

I'm not reformed, can I still successfully use Omnibus or will I be substituting too much?

How teacher intensive is this program?

What subjects are included in this program?



Anything else you want to add or experiences you can tell me about would be great. Ds is in 6th grade now and I want to make some basic decisions about High School so that I can prepare him in these Jr. High years.

[Chris in VA]

Real quick--I've used Omni 1 and parts of 2 with my 9th/10th grader during our first two years of homeschooling.

Subjects--Covers Theology, History and Bible thru the study of Great Books and other really good books. Spielvogel's Western Civ is used as a supplement, and several other books are also used at the discretion of the teacher.

Omni is very easy to teach. The student starts each GB (or rgb!) by reading a long essay, contained in the Omni text. The essay generally details the worldview of the author of the book, lays out some of the plot and some of the other literary elements (characters, setting, etc). Then the actual reading of the GB is laid out, with a daily schedule, and questions to answer after each day's reading. I found the questions to be very helpful. Sometimes they are brief discussion questions, sometimes they are Bible passages that relate to the book, sometimes they are just recall. (Someone else can answer this part better!)

The complete text of the student's book, all the answers to the questions, and tests and other supplemental materials are found on the cd-rom that comes with the text. The answers are actually in a different color font--I printed all the answers off the cd-rom and stashed them in a notebook, but you don't have to do this. I loved this--it even had answers for the essay.

You could easily use Omnibus for high school. There are progym writing exercises (but not a lot of instruction for these), a few activities, and some art study, too. The level of the questions is more logic stage, but that was plenty for us. The reading is challenging, but not as intimidating once you start, and they really hold your hand for teaching--I haven't seen anything that has such good questions for discussion. Some people think there's too much reading--we just ditched the Secondary reading (and added back in a few other historical fiction books instead of the ones recommended). The pace is pretty quick, but you are giving 3 credits of class for it, so, you figure that usually means an hour a day for each credit, plus homework time. I don't think we spent quite that much time on it (and, as I said, we didn't do all the Secondary reading).

Omnibus is a great program--it made GB study possible for us. We are not "of the Dark Side," I mean, Reform (totally just kidding here:D) but it wasn't too big a deal for us. Ancients does start with Genesis, and they are young earth, but there's room to wiggle there. I really, really liked it.

Oh, one other thing--I'd skip Suetonius' work.

[Karenciavo]

This is a great books study right? What can you tell me about it?
Yes, great books for the most part. There are some good books thrown in as well.

Do you have to start it in 7th grade to really use it fully?
No, some people begin in 9th grade.

How is it to teach Omnibus?
Hmm, it's been a couple of years. Let's see, we would read the introduction together and then my son would follow the scheduled reading and questions. We would discuss his answers. If I'm remembering correctly, the teacher's cd has lesson plans on it to further help you teach it.

I'm not reformed, can I still successfully use Omnibus or will I be substituting too much?
Depending on your beliefs you might want to skip books such as Chosen By God, but it's not so much the books themselves as the questions and answers. Maybe someone else can help with this one. All I can say (from my faulty memory) is that as a reformed believer I liked it. Non reformed Christians may like it too. Non Christians and secular people would probably have to change too much.

How teacher intensive is this program?
I believe it's meant to be discussed and so that may be teacher intensive to you. Some would say you should probably read the books as well, but the teacher's cd contains a complete answer key.

What subjects are included in this program?
Literature and theology. History readings are scheduled using Spielvogel. There are many writing assignments, but Omnibus assumes a knowledge of writing. There are lots of essays and some progym.

Anything else you want to add or experiences you can tell me about would be great. Ds is in 6th grade now and I want to make some basic decisions about High School so that I can prepare him in these Jr. High years.
Basic advice to prepare for high school: learn how to write and evaluate. Practice outlining, Venn diagramming if you prefer, and writing until the cows come home. TOG's philosophy is Read•Think•Write and I think that it works for whatever you use. Teach your middle schooler how to do that and he will be successful.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I'll add a few more thoughts. We did Omni I and II. We're not doing III. ;)

The reading goes very fast. Your child needs to be a good reader, being able not only to read fast, but to absorb what he is reading. It is nice that you don't dwell on the details in those books. I like doing overviews and looking at the big picture, but this is also a weakness to the program. You never slow down and delve into a book. (of course, you wouldn't want to with some of them.:blushing:) I found, after 2 years of doing the course, that my dd needed to slow down and digest a book, not just speed read it. She had no problem keeping up with the readings, but it all felt like a blur.

I loved the essay ideas. We tried to work through an essay at least every 2 weeks. We worked on the idea of having a thesis (which was just answering the question) and backing that up with what we read. This was great writing practice.

One other weakness for us was that is wasn't going to cover "traditional" HS subjects. I could make it work on a transcript but it was going to be hard (we are working with an umbrella school and they have strick requirements).

It is Reformed but that only means that is their perspective. You can disagree with their answers. It can make for a good discussion. You may want to skip the theology books, which are very reformed.

One more thing, I agree with Chris, skip Suetonius :tongue_smilie: