2010 Recap from the Six Turbos

Sorry for the long delay in posts, but before I start with fresh resolve for the coming year, I'd love to record a bit of 2010 first. It was a wonderful year, full of adventure and joy in the midst of regular old life. Many days ran together, but themes did emerge...

Beach Days! We all love the beach, whether it is boogie boarding, playing in the sand, exploring the tidepools, making new friends, or even just sleeping in the sun. We camped at El Capitan beach near Santa Barbara for a week in June and loved it! I expect it may become an annual tradition. Carson is always in the water. He even tried a surf camp this summer- not quite successful yet but he did learn the basics. Henry is the engineer of sand castles while Natalie and Peter love to dig and collect sea life. We spent many Mondays (Eric's day off) as well as summer Fridays (with our homeschool group) at Corona Del Mar in Newport.

Rainy Days. Yes, it does rain in California and our roof leaked, but the kids love rain and run outside as soon as it starts for fear it will be over too fast. They play in streams on our culdesac and ride bikes in the rain. While camping in Flagstaff, AZ (Lake Mary) this summer with my brothers family, we had lots of rain and the kids were quite creative with their mudpies and mud houses. No, it's not snow; but it does get us excited around here.

School Days. There have been plenty of school days this past year. Carson (4th), Henry (2nd), Natalie (1st) and Peter (preschool) have each been excellent students in our homeschool here known as "Eagle Eye Academy". We studied the Roman Empire last spring and are finishing up the Middle Ages now. There have been lots of fun projects and field trips- the Getty Villa (a full scale reproduction of a Roman villa in Malibu) was a highlight. And of course the Middle Ages have been a blast learning about castles and knights and vikings. We've read lots of good books this year including Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Tales of King Arthur and the Secret Garden. We are also part of a home school co-op (Irvine Christian Academy) where the kids got to be part of their first drama production.

Saturday Sports. Carson and Henry were just the right ages to be able to play on the same baseball team this spring (Irvine Pony machine pitch). It was the first season for both of them and they did an awesome job as they improved. Natalie also had her first chance at a sport this year and played on a girls under 6 soccer team. Turns out she's a pretty intense competitor!

Sunday Church. We love Sovereign Grace Church of Orange County! It's exciting to have Sunday morning services at the OC Plaza since Easter and to keep building friendships with people here, including some brand new families. Eric is doing an awesome job preaching and leading. The kids and I love helping him out any way we can. We get to host guest receptions and home groups at the house and the kids are growing in their love and care for all the people around them. We get to send Dad off to meetings like the Preaching Practicum, T4G, and Leadership Conferences. And everyone loved going to the Sovereign Grace Together conference in San Diego (especially since we got to hang out with some old friends!)

Date Nights. I love date nights! And so do the kids. Eric and I get to go out alone together almost every week. We have some great babysitters. Since August, our friend Kipsy has been living with us while finding a new job. She is a dear sister who loves our kids and is quick to help around the house and send us out. Eric and I like to walk to the local coffee shop or go to the beach. We went away for a weekend in Beverly Hills in the spring and to a concert this fall. We are still in the stage of exploring Orange County and LA any chance we get.

Family Visitors. We love having extended family come to visit! It's always a sweet bonding time with cousins, siblings, and grandparents, And it's an excuse to do more fun things like the beach, whale watching trips, Sawdust festival, OC Great Park, bike rides, etc. I flew back to PA with Natalie and Peter to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday and got to be with all my siblings in one place. Eric's parents and sister Heather came to join us for Christmas and we celebrated in high style.

Vacation Days. It was a great year for vacations. We try to get away as a family regularly even for a short time. We spent some time at a friend's home in Fallbrook, camping at El Capitan with a side trip to Six Flags, camping with my brother and family near Flagstaff AZ (with his boat!), then some time in the mountains dog sitting and four wheeling in the desert. What memories!

All the other days. too many to describe: sick days (gratefully few), holidays(with new friends and old), losing teeth days (many!), lazy days, grumpy days, lego days, birthdays, cleaning days, even a few video game days in there. I'm grateful for this past year, grateful for this particular season of life that the Lord has us in. He is always good, but He is choosing to show His goodness to us through a season of blessing and prosperity right now and I give Him all the glory for it!

Red Radioactive Lightning

Carson and Henry were part of a Junior First Lego League team this fall. They joined brothers Jordan and Elan (who are also homeschooled) to make up "Red Radioactive Lightning". We spent Saturday at Legoland in Carlsbad where the boys presented their model at the JrFLL Expo.
The theme for this year's challenge was 'Smart Moves'- the boys had to come up with an item and research how it is transported. After much lively discussion, the boys chose to learn about land mines. Their model consisted of a field of land mines and a vehicle which can lay down or remove the mines. They also had larger scale mine models and a few causalities as only lego people can have. (I must say it was one of the most 'boy' projects at the expo- as opposed to the transportation of things like soccer balls or pencils.)


A reviewer came to each team (there were about 35 teams here) and asked them lots of good questions about the model and their research on the poster. The boys did an awesome job! At the end of the morning, there was an award ceremony where the boys received certificates and ribbons.
And of course, there were a few rides to enjoy too.

Greek Mythology and the One True God

This year in our history classes we are studying Ancient Greece and Rome using Veritas Press curriculum. I don't think I ever studied Greek Mythology and so my first read through a book like d'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths brought shock at how absurd the stories could be! Of course the kids love them. Especially the stories of swallowing rocks and fighting against outlandish monsters!

Carson's personal favorite is Ares (the god of war). They often color pictures while I read aloud to them so he asked if he could print some of Ares, then decided to photocopy them to make a whole army. So all four of the kids were coloring while I read then recreated a war with the papers and duplo blocks.

















I've included a partial list of some of our favorite books on the sidebar, but one surprise we found was a book called Olympia: Warrior Athletes of Ancient Greece by Dyan Blacklock and David Kennett.

The illustrations are incredible- very intricate modern drawings with a cartoon feel but so much emotion in every picture. There are lots of warriors and fighting in the book- so it may not be for all kids, but my boys were enthralled. The book tells the story of how the King of Elis began the Olympics in the 8th century BC and describes what occurred on each day of the festival.

One of the drawings shows the temple of Zeus and all the crowds gathering around to make sacrifices and worship the gods. Henry (who is quite the deep thinker and loves to ask questions) asked, "Mom, are these people still there?" Then in a very somber tone he added, "That must have made God so sad to see all those people worshiping idols".

It stopped me and brought tears to my eyes- how true he was! This was real history, these were real people, and the one true God was watching. He has always been watching and is still watching today, and much of what he sees is idolatry.

In our bible studies we are still in Exodus, so we've been emphasizing the fact that God chose Abraham and promised to make him a great nation. But here was a time to point Henry forward to the fact that after Jesus came, he sent missionaries like Paul to preach to the Greeks. Jesus died to save the very nation that came up with such an elaborate system of gods. And he came to save sinners like me from every nation of the world!

So for my big kids, our study of Greek mythology has helped to distinguish between the true God and the greek gods. Unfortunately we may be confusing poor little Pete (3yo). At this point he seems to be mixing it all together, but that's true about a lot of things in his world these days.

Homeschool at the Turbo House

School has been the major thing keeping me busy these days. This year we are filing a 'PSA'- private school affidavit (rather than schooling through a charter school like we have done the last three years). One benefit is that I can schedule our curriculum so that all of the kids are studying similar topics. So for example, we've been doing a unit on horses where the kids are each reading age appropriate horse literature, learning about equestrian science, and drawing horses. We are also studying history (Ancient Greece & Rome-that's a Trojan horse below) and bible (OT- Joseph right now) together.

Another benefit is being able to challenge and work with each kid right where they are at. Natalie and Henry are each learning to read at about the same level so they do all their phonics and math together. But Henry loves listening to higher level literature (and asking lots of questions!) so he's in on all of Carson's read alouds. Natalie is adamant about learning cursive now (not sure why she's so eager- probably because it's 'prettier'). Carson loves to read- he's been reading through Maguerite Henry's horse novels much faster than I expected so I keep adding more on. He's not crazy about math but is doing very well at it. Last week he had to memorize a poem and did a great job! In general, preparing the curriculum has been more work for me, but it also helps me to own the process and to truly feel like I'm teaching the kids. It's awesome to see progress and to learn with them.

One new thing we are doing this year is 'memory period'. We begin our morning all together singing songs (with some funky hand motions I come up with) that help us memorize information. We've been working on the Westminster shorter catechism, bible verses, and skip counting.

And what does Peter do? He has a seat at the school table with us and works on his dry erase work books- mostly just coloring (i mean scribbling) until he wanders off to play with his duplos. He is generally cooperative (although he does know what 'zip it' means since he is the most talkative person around the house). He loves when Carson reads to him and also gets to do starfall on the computer for part of the morning- one of his favorite times of the day.

For anyone who cares, here's the curriculum we're using:

Math: Saxon1 and Saxon5/4
Phonics: Veritas Phonics Museum
Grammar: Easy Grammar 3/4; Primary Language Lessons
History: Veritas Ancient Greece and Rome
Bible: Veritas Genesis to Judges
Science: unit studies (horses right now, will do plants)
Spelling: Spelling Power

And i still need to come up with a name for our school by the time paperwork is due in October... any suggestions out there?