Work abroad in Kellie's family for 12-24 Months starting from Aug 2023 as an Au Pair and Live-in Tutor to take care of 2 children of 11 - 14 years old in Villa Park, California USA

Family Description

Hello!
It is a pleasure to "meet" you.... and thank you for your interest in our family.

We are the Gordons - Kellie (Mom), Shawn (Dad), and almost 10 year old twin boys (the red haired boy is Quinn & Parker has the blonde hair). We've been married 16 years and live in Orange County, California near the mountains of Anaheim and Disneyland.

So what do we like to do?

Definitely anything outdoors whether that means playing fetch with "Petey" or “Bowser” - our 8 and 9 year old small shelter-rescued dogs, jumping in our backyard trampoline, swimming, racing 3-wheel bikes or building forts in our large backyard.

Living in North Orange County, we are blessed with plenty of parks and hiking trails...and we're a quick drive to the beach. Corona Del Mar is a favorite beach - as you can see by some of our pictures on our profile and in our "GrowingGordons" Instagram page noted below.

Both boys are very smart and have been reading books since age 2. Not kidding!

Science and math are favorite subjects for both boys so we often play science games and card games during dinner or family game time. We also like to play Conversation Bingo, Ask-a-Question Jenga and other vocabulary or sentence skill / word board games which are fun ways to learn new vocabulary and practice conversation skills.
Quinn is curious, talkative and likes to keep busy usually by creating art and building marble runs or designing gadgets with legos. He has an incredible vocabulary and is very athletic (surfing, soccer, handball, tetherball) Around our yard we have various concrete creatures that Quinn has painted and from frogs to garden gnomes which makes the yard a fun magical place to relax in the shade, enjoy in a hammock or swing under a tree.

Parker is sweet, somewhat shy, and caring. He loves watching sports competitions on TV (Basketball, Football, Golf, Soapbox Racing, Nascar racing) and playing with anything that moves with wheels (Nascar race cars and Matchbox cars, trains, construction vehicles). He is always inventing a new story or game involving cars. Parker also has an ear for music and enjoys playing the piano. Although he taught himself to somewhat read piano sheet music, he likes to listen to the sounds and figure out which keys can be combined to match music he heard on the radio - such as his favorite songs by Rush and the Beatles.

Mom is generally home and teaches distance classes by zoom/remote in the Pharmacy School at the University of Southern California and loves doing all things craft and yard related with the boys (I call them my munchkins). If you are interested in learning more about any aspect of healthcare, FDA or medical products and medicines are designed, manufactured, tested, working with patients etc. - Mom is always more than happy to share information and loves to teach (If of interest). Dad is an aerospace engineer working on projects with NASA is the cook of the family, famous for his BBQ and playing board games with the boys.

Mom and Dad both encourage the boys to be responsible and are actively teaching the boys how each can contribute to the family household.

For example, each boy has his own list of household chores each week; and goals to meet or complete before they have earned their evening video game/technology time.

On any given weekend, you'll most likely find us all having fun in the yard. Thankfully we have been blessed with a large backyard so there's much to do, plenty of fruit trees (avocados, apricots, figs, tangerines, plums... at least 1 tree seems to be producing fruit somewhere in the yard every season :)...lots of butterflies, birds....

Additional pictures and our family's stories are on our family Instagram page:
Growinggordons -
For example, here is a link to one of our postings...
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-_UctYnP4b/?igshid=1q6cxzjhtau0x

Our Instagram page may also give you an idea of how our boys are with Autism.

We happen to be very lucky as both boys are very smart (IQs ~150 and have photographic memories), and we have utilized many therapists over the years – for example….Occupational Therapy, OT-based Karate, Applied Behavior Analysis, Speech and Language therapy, Aquatic Physical Therapy, Social Thinking / Growth Mindset kids groups. We also work with incredible doctors and use certain medication which benefits the boys as well.

Quinn currently attends St. Jeanne De Lestonnac Academy, a culturally diverse private Catholic School. We are in the process of switching schools for Parker as he made incredible academic progress in recent months (for example, he completed the entire 3rd grade math book in 3 months).

In terms of how the boys get along, Quinn likes to think of himself as the big brother and in the past he did a lot of speaking for his brother. However, a year ago Parker suddenly came out of his shy shell, and he started talking... using sentences, telling stories and then jokes!

So now, we have therapists who come to our house every weekday morning (usually 9am-12pm or 9am-2pm) to work with the boys on practicing their language, conversational and social skills. For example, when the therapists were at our house, our CHI au pair who was with us for the last 2 years, helped and assisted with snacks, supplies, and joined the group games.

It has been an incredible adventure and we are very proud of where we are now - and see a bright future ahead.
I hope the above provides a brief picture as to our family... We are more than happy to share more information and answer any questions that you may have about us and living in the United States.

Looking forward to sharing more - and learning more about you!!
Let's talk soon!
Sincerely,
Kellie, Shawn, Quinn and Parker
Cell: 818-272-3253 – by phone and Whatsapp