Busy days....

I haven't blogged because things at the Mangum's house have been a little crazy. We started officially teaching the children their formal lessons. We also implemented our new chore system. The morning chores are working out great, I may have to do something different for our afternoon and evening chores. Sometimes we're still doing lessons in the afternoon. (mainly Taylor)

Taylor is in Challenge A at Classical Conversations this year. This would be their 7th grade program. We are loving the curriculum. It's a lot more work, but Taylor is mastering everything so far. She is very dedicated and determined. I'm so proud of her.

The boys and I start Foundations next week. So we will all be together at CC on Thursdays. This will be great! I'm very excited about adding our memory work into the boys lessons. I love Classical Conversation's curriculum. It has worked so well for our family. I've organized all our readers and supplemental resources for the year.

Ethan is reading well. He only has 4 more books until his promised reward! I'm not big into rewarding the children with things they have to do, but for Ethan's reading I felt it was okay. He is great at reading, but it's more "work" for him. He would rather count, organize patterns, add crazy numbers... So we can already tell he's going to be our math boy. He loves to be read to, but is a little lazy when it comes to doing it on his own.

I'm reading The Core, by Leigh Bortins right now. She is the founder of CC. I am really enjoying how she breaks down each "subject," and explains how we should teach it classically. I can really say that I'm growing in my understanding of classical education and teaching the trivium. I also started a sewing class. It is every Thursday evening for 8 weeks. I'm so excited to learn how to sew. It started with a frustration in buying clothes for our daughters. I've already bought one pattern, the fabric, and everything else needed to make this adorable dress. I can't wait to start making our daughters cute, appropriate, and trendy dresses!

Martie has been busy with ministry stuff. Lot's of meetings. He's counseling a beautiful couple that is getting married this January. He's also working on a new Constitution for the church. He is preaching a series on the Gospel. He just finished 1 Tim. He's now trying to teach the church how to share the gospel. (I don't mean the "Faith method", the "Way of the Master", or any of those other methods) He's just teaching the bible, hopefully we will out of love for our Savior go out and preach the gospel to the dying world around us.

Martie is also going out of town for five days. I'm very excited for him. He's going to Washington, DC for a "Weekender" at Mark Dever's church. (Nine Marks Ministry) He has read almost all the books offered by this ministry. I'm a little nervous about being home alone with the children that long. I just love having him around, I will miss "adult conversation." We'll see how that goes. :)

That's about all that's going on at the Mangum's house. Thanks for listening to my wild rambling.