Is anyone here doing Omnibus II (crosspost)?

[Heather in VA]

How is it going? How are you finding the books? I'm wondering about books like Ecclesiastical History of England or Eusebius: The Church History. Are they engaging at all? The descriptions makes them seem pretty dry.

 

Thanks

[Anne in Hawaii]

We're in Omnibus II, and I really like it! The books are much easier than those in Omnibus I (my children say this, too), and it seems like the reading doesn't take as much time as it did last year. Eusebius & Ecclesiastical History weren't too bad (we had some good discussion), but there are definitely some books that are more "engaging" than others. There are some books (in Omnibus I, too) that we just had to power through, but we were glad when we finished them and could say we made it!

[Moira in MA]

Well, your mileage may vary but we enjoyed them. Eusebius quoted many of the early church writers and made real the struggles of the early Christians. Keeping track of the heresies was a challenge but it really made it clear just why a heresy is so difficult to stamp out. Some of them are still around today!

 

Bede is engaging if you like medieval history (which we do). He described how Christianity was brought to England by both the Irish and the Roman church. How they battled it out over the dating of Easter and why that unity is so important.

 

I find that the sessions in Omnibus keep you moving along at a pretty fast clip so you don't get bogged down in all the detail. My attitude is that this is a first pass, they will see these books again -- I try to remember they don't have to absorb everything in one go.

 

HTH

[Chris in VA]

I agree with Moira, except I know this will be the only pass for my ds, in school, anyway. We didn't read all the books, but pretty much enjoyed most of them. We also mixed in a few others--mostly historical fiction, but also some theology/doctrine (since we pruned the list that would have given him the theology credit, I thought we should add some in).

Ds' favorite still remains The Odyssey, read in Omnibus 1.

[Michelle in MO]

and are enjoying it more than Omnibus I (although we didn't get nearly as much done on Omnibus I as we would have like!). We are not doing Bede's Ecclesiastical History, but we did read Eusebius's Church History, and I thought it was very engaging! We just finished History of the Kings of Britian (Geoffrey of Monmouth) and that also was very good. We're taking one week off, and then we start Macbeth and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. We're only doing the Primary Readings, however. My girls have read many of the Secondary Readings, and I find it very difficult to do ALL the readings!