Week 37 - Oklahoma is the place to be.......

So I got way behind this week.  This has been a bad autism week for us.  Lots of meltdowns.  We did do a lot of chilling this week, but there was drama in other avenues of our life.  Whoever said that homeschoolers are not socialized....WOW!  Are they ever wrong!

Many people will disagree with me, but I feel that learning how to have good online etiquette when using online communication methods is a necessity for kids.  So many people now work in virtual environments where they communicate through online meeting sites.  These sites sometimes have video feeds, but most times are strictly audio.  So you need to learn to communicate with people that you cannot see.  This can be annoying because you cannot see the expressions on their face.  You have to learn to "read" the tone in their voice.  Lydia this week has been working and learning some lessons about online communication.  She already Skypes with her cousin, but we have been trying to work on watching our tone and explaining ourselves on the voice server for the Homeschool with Minecraft school.  Currently she is leading one of our building clubs, so that she can get some extra practice.

It has just been a busy week.  My body has been feeling the consequences of all the extra work and not enough sleep.  And the extra stress of sibling fights is not helping.  Oh and Caty's mood swing meltdowns that keep coming out of the blue.  Our relaxing weekend, ended up not being very relaxing after all.  After mass-road tripping it last weekend, I was kind of looking forward to hanging out.  But we still did two museums yesterday and then had drama today because of a water leak in our hotel room.    So maybe one day this week, I'll get a chance to rest some.

Last Saturday we took the kids to Mount Rushmore to visit the park for the day.  They were so excited.

By Sunday afternoon, we had arrived in Oklahoma City, OK.  It was almost 80 degrees, so we went for a walk through Bricktown and explored the river.  That is where we are staying.  We saw these great horse-drawn princess carriages and had to go for a quick ride.

The girls were thrilled!  Even the horse's hooves were glittered up.

But Monday brought us back to the typical day.  I caught up the laundry and the kids had schoolwork and I had Live classes in the afternoon.


For History they girls were supposed to make cave art.  I told them to draw a favorite place we visited.  Since our life is on the road, that is what someone may read in our family's cave art...lol.  Lydia decided to draw the trees on the trail at Mount Rushmore.

 Caty drew our van driving to pick apples.  Not this trip, but that is what she chose to draw.

The hotel has a basketball court and since it's was still nice outside, the girls and daddy went downstairs to play when he got home from work.

Lydia and I worked on her United Kingdom project.  She has two more things to finish on this, animals and food poster yet.

Playing Minecraft...again.

Caty working on her Reading Eggs and Orton-Gilliam book.

Lydia's version of a shaduf for history.

Lydia made jello on her own.

Caty started her Japan project.  We still have a lot to finish on this.

 But we visited a local Japanese grocery store to check out the foods and get some new things to try.

 Frozen, dried meats.

 Fish tanks to purchase fresh fish.

 Pig Uteris...not sure what you make with this.  We saw all kinds of interesting things in this store.

 Posing by the cherry blossom trees.

 Some of their purchases to try.  They were not fans of the strawberry KitKats or Mung bean cakes.

 These were actually Chinese products that Lydia picked out to try.

 One night Lydia and I went for a walk along the Bricktown river.

Getting ready for poetry tea time.  Cookies, the strawberry KitKats and mung bean cake (Japanese tradition) with their hot cocoa and hot cider.  This was the pile of poems we had to read.

 This was a HUGE hit.  Someone included a Mad Lib in their poem for us to do.  The kids thought this was great!

 Some tea that we were also sent.  The kids can't wait to try it.

The girls are listening to the Tales of Desperaux for their literature.  They were both building Desperaux in Minecraft.

 Another find at the Japanese market....dragon fruit.

Lydia didn't really like it.  But she tried it.

Caty and Joey really liked this soup we got for them.  They added extra shrimp.  It was a hit.

Posing by the fountain along the river.  I Love Lydia's shirt from the Pez Factory....It says....You are not famous until your Head is on a Pez Dispenser.

Caty's favorite part of hotel living.  Getting to eat the waffles from the breakfast bar.

On Saturday we went to the Oklahoma City Zoo.  The highlight of the day was feeding the giraffes.

A dessert attempt.  I used my crockpot to make a blueberry cobbler.  It's sugar free, gluten-free, grain-free, etc.  Made with macadamia nut flour, goat cheese, blueberries, stevia, tapioca flour and a little water.  very yummy!!!  Not low-fat though...but all the fats were at least healthy fats.

We are ready for this week.  Lessons planned and ready to go.  Also waiting to see where we are headed next.  Not sure if we are going back North or headed South back to Texas.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week....more adventures to come!