Getting a little Froggy!

How close is this picture to the ones you see on billboards or copier advertisements? This little fellow was sitting on my back door step, where he nearly became nothing more than a messy green glob of goo, had I not stepped over him. My first thought was a leaf; I am glad I took a closer look! And now you can too:

We prodded him to move from the step to a safer spot. He jumped on me and on Charis, which was a wierd feeling of dampness and yet he'd not pee-ed on us either. (Don't worry, we still washed up good, just in case!) He then landed on the trampoline where we got the great shots. We turned the fun into a science study, showing the kids where his nostrils and ears were and examining his pads which allow him to stick on whatever he lands on. He did open his mouth, so we were able to see his tongue, but he didn't eat anything for us to see him in action.

The Oak Tree: Going from green, to red, to brown in just a week.

A big day!

Wow! What a day Monday was! It was certainly a big, busy day in the Bentley household. Dennis worked ALL day! Yes, from 6am until 9pm, he was away at work. But that's okay, because we are grateful for the provision of the Lord in strength to work and supply our every need.

Charis started 1st grade. After a little bit of trouble getting A Beka Books shipped to us; they finally arrived Friday. I took the weekend to go over lesson plans and set a more definite schedule. Matthew was so anxious to start that we got a sheet of paper and our Vowel chart out. I had him draw and color pictures of things that start with "A" and he did a really good job! I'll see if I can get a picture of his work on here soon. With Matthew doing some school work, Charis seemed a bit more enthused to work on hers. She is learning cursive, which has already proved to be challenging just with the letter e. But I'm not going to be discouraged; we have plenty of time to work on penmanship!

Today was also Charis' first violin lesson with a new teacher. We had set the violin to the side with our move and only recently picked it back up to practice over the summer. Ms. Melanie is a good teacher and strives to make it fun. Charis was a bit rusty on some review songs. She was given some new diddles to learn and was told to practice, practice, practice!

After lessons, we headed home and shortly after, the UPS truck pulled into our drive. Matthew ran to greet the driver as he handed him a box marked "A Beka Book." Talk about excitement! He wanted to do school all over again for the day. But we sat down and went through his materials so we could get a fresh start today. The excitement has even oozed down to Andrew: yes, he want to do school too!

Updated!

School continues for Charis as she is learning more and more. I am trying to teach Matthew a bit, since he wants to be right with Charis during school hours. I don't want to cause him to have disinterest when it is time for him to do school, so we go over a page or two and I just sort of test him to see what he knows and then teach him something new. He loves it.

Andrew just loves attention, and he will do almost anything he can to get it. When Matthew's done with his "school" they play together. As you can see, they are bestest buddies, most of the time anyway!

Faith is growing so quickly and everything is new and interesting to her. She has the brightest eyes and smiles often!


She has also found her thumb and feels she no longer needs her pacifier. Which is nice because I don't have to keep up with where her paci is anymore. But, she hasn't quite figured out yet how to get her thumb to her mouth when she is on her back or in her carseat. And that also means another child I will have to break of thumbsucking. But that's a few years away. Right now, it's just adorable, don't you think?






She is scooting around (literally!) when she is awak and on her tummy, which is alot! I can place her in the playpen facing one way and when I return to her a few minutes later, she is facing the opposite direction. She loves the ceiling fans and also a teddy bear I have hanging on my dresser mirror in our bedroom. If I can get a picture of that somehow, I will post it as well.
Having four kids certainly keeps me busy, but I thoroughly enjoy it!

Here's a recent video of Faith as she was learning to coo. I have entitled this video: "A Coo, Achoo! and A Smile"

HomeSchool - Day 1

I started homeschooling Charis today. We are using A Beka curriculum and she is in K-5. My plan was to start at 8am with violin practicing and then school until about lunch time. Andrew woke up this morning with a soaked-full diaper which immediately woke up the rest of the household by 6:30 am. I wasn't going to wake the children up until 7:30, with the exception of Charis, who would get up at 7am.
After bathing Andrew and getting Dennis out the door for work, I prepared breakfast for the children. While they ate, I took a quick shower. Then I fed Faith. So we officially started her lessons at about 8:15am; not too far off my goal. I washed dishes while she practiced and then we started schooling.
Most of what she is doing is review, she knows alot already. Numbers, colors, letters. She already can read quite a bit and can spell as well as write. So, it went much faster than I anticipated. We took a few breaks and were totally finished for the day by 11:15am. So, I guess I can pretty much plan a 3-hour school day.
At 2pm, I headed out the door for her violin lessons, but since Andrew seems to have a sore throat, possibly strep, we cancelled them (her teacher has four kids of her own and we don't want to spread any kind of infection if at all possible!)
I feel good about today's school work and I hope tomorrow will be better... and that Andrew won't be demanding my every minute of attention.