An Update From OLVS - Our Lady of Victory Catholic Curriculum
I was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from Our Lady of Victory Catholic Curriculum. If you have read my 2 part series on our Catholic Curriculum finds, you'll know that in our 2nd year of homeschooling we used and liked OLVS.
I received permission to reprint the letter here as OLVS has some news!
"OLV is unique in that any family, whether or not enrolled, can purchase all materials from the school's inventory. This includes the complete program at any grade level, or individual texts, and/or an entire grade level's lesson plans (elementary years). At the high school level, individual course plans are also available," writes Keeping It Catholic.
Check out their bookstore, too, for wonderful, CATHOLIC offerings and their standardized testing is BY FAR the least expensive out there.
I received permission to reprint the letter here as OLVS has some news!
Dear Allison,
I recently found your blog and was very impressed with the overall content. As an employee of Our Lady of Victory School (as well as an OLVS graduate!), I was also very thankful to find your positive review of our curriculum. The school director asked that I email you regarding some changes to our curriculum that might interest you and your followers.
For the 2012-2013 school year, we have reduced the school year by two weeks, resulting in a more manageable 36 week program. We are also revamping the overall lesson plan assignments, focusing on making sure that the students actually understand the material, not that they can simply rewrite what they have just read. Additionally, quarter exam study guides will be available for the high school students. There will also be further tutor interaction with the students. The 2012-2013 catalog is going to print this week and the information will be posted on our website shortly.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this message. If you are interested, I can certainly keep you informed on any further developments to our curriculum.
May God bless you for your hard work on the Catholic homeschooling front!
Tina Perez
OLV Office
421 S. Lochsa
Post Falls, ID 83854
Phone 208-773-7265
Fax 208-773-1951
Check out their bookstore, too, for wonderful, CATHOLIC offerings and their standardized testing is BY FAR the least expensive out there.
6 comments:
HI Allison~lots of good info. Do they follow a classical approach? I am not familiar with them. ~ Theresa
I liked OLVS but had such a problem with my mail. I wish they would accept tests and paperwork via the internet and email.
Theresa - OLVS is more traditional perhaps more akin to Seton. There's a test at the end of the week in just about every subject...end of the quarter and a yearly too. It's solid.
Tabitha - I think they might be open to hearing from you. In my original post I did cite the 38 week school year and the lack of tutors as perhaps holding them back from competing with other curriculums and they did in fact make changes in those areas!
The high school theology series, Our Quest for Happiness, used by OLVS is the best available hands down! After using Seton's religion for grades 3-6, my daughter was craving more than it offered. She loves the series offered by OLVS, and it has made for a great class for me & my husband as well! The answer key is useful, the lesson plans are not necessary.
We have also begun using OLVS 3rd grade religion with my 2nd grade son. He enjoys it as well. It is solid with no frills, which I like, but offers more stories, etc than solely using the Baltimore Catechism. (Lesson plans are not "necessary" for this level but some may like them. I do like the syllabus & teacher's manual; however I am not sure how if that is sold separately as I purchased used books.)
I have used the Little Angel Readers phonics set for both my children (who are entirely different creatures) with great success, followed by the Catholic National Readers. These readers were created in the 1890's by Benziger Bros for Christian Bros. schools. The vocabulary is advanced by today's literary standards, and the language is simply lovely! I have no idea why Catholic schools are not using these treasures as they are so edifying! They follow Little Angel's perfectly imo. Both of my children are exceptionally strong readers. Do not let the simplicity of Little Angel's or the Catholic National Readers fool you-- they are gentle but thorough.
The Picture in Catechism that OLVS is now offering in their catalog is EXCEPTIONALLY beautiful and should be in every Catholic home library. A great gift for reception of sacraments, too!
A friend just picked up Christian Citizenship, the high school Civics course. She likes that it is straight-forward and concise.
OLVS offers many other books we use with Latin-Centered Curriculum, but I won't hog your blog. I hope this might be helpful to some who is perusing their options!
Lori
WOooooo hooooo! We use OLVS and EVERY ONE in my house was so excited to read that they are shortening the school year! Because of this, MODG always looked very appealing to me with their 32 week school year. That is the one thing that always got me to looking at something else toward the end of the year.
Thanks for sharing!
Could anybody here compare OLVS with OLRS? I would love to get more information about them, but their website is not very informative. It looks like they use some books OLVS uses.
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