My knowledge of
Veritas Press prior to this review was reputation only. I had heard of how strong their history courses were. Classical history from a Biblical worldview – sounds great for classical homeschoolers. But we were not classical homeschoolers. Except we keep leaning that way. As my children get older, it seems to be a natural progression to move in this direction. That’s why I was thrilled when we were given this opportunity for our oldest (13 yo) daughter to work through
Veritas Press Self-Paced Omnibus I.
The Self-Paced Omnibus ($295) is a new offering, an option to the all-text and live online Omnibus courses. These courses begin at the first level in the dialectic stage of classical education – roughly 7th grade. We are using Omnibus I which covers history from the beginning (creation) to the fall of Rome. Some of the books used are Gilgamesh, The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses, The Oresteia Trilogy, Plutarch, and of course, the Bible. The self-paced online course uses video for lectures, interviews, tours of some of the historical sites aka virtual field trips. Keeping the pace of 5 sessions a week, the course is a full school year. The self-paced option gives you access for 12 months allowing for quite a bit of flexibility. As we are on a lighter summer schedule, my daughter has been doing three sessions a week. If she maintained this pace, she would not complete the course within the time period we are given.
Coming from a Charlotte Mason style, living books have been used in much of our studies. This similarity in CM and Classical has made the transition from one to the other easy. We have especially been happy that these books have been easy to obtain. We have found many of the specific editions at our library. For those not in our library system, Veritas Press has them available to purchase on their website – as a bundle or individually. There is a reading schedule included so your learner can read what is need prior to each session. Though my daughter still struggles with reading at grade level, the amount of reading has been doable for her – especially at the slower pace. When we resume our regular schedule in a few weeks, we’ll re-evaluate how many sessions she can do in a week. Four times a week might work well as we school year-round and she can complete the whole course within our access time.
Everything for the course is accessible on-line (well, except the literature). We can sign in from any computer with a good internet connection. When my daughter signs in, she can click to launch the lesson and it takes her right to where she left off. The system automatically bookmarks periodically. To be sure your spot is marked, it is recommended to refresh the page as this will also bookmark the spot. Each time she launches (or resumes) a lesson, our connection and set-up is evaluated. Our internet can be on the slow side. We often get a warning about it, but have had no problems when actually doing the lessons. The resolution on one of our computers was low. We also received a warning when we first launched Omnibus. A change in the settings and all has been well.
The dashboard is where you can see what is going on. If I had more than one learner, I can easily see each student’s progress. When I look at the student’s page from the parent sign-in, I can see what modules she has completed and her score on the quiz. I love that this is automatically graded and progress recorded. I check in with her to see if she has any problems or questions. I sign-in to be sure she has been working steadily. The rest is all her responsibility. This has been wonderful for both of us. She is being independent and responsible. I have help to transition to mentoring and monitoring rather than instructing.
Self-Paced Omnibus 1 is not the only Veritas Press course reviewed by the Schoolhouse Review Crew. Some of our Crew members also reviewed Self-Paced History. These courses are for your younger learners and are available to cover different time periods. Be sure to read the reviews!
Thank you Veritas Press!
