There was a big turn-out and the many food stalls and attractions were kept busy all the way through.
All the children were very patient, standing in line with their respective schools on the sports field whilst the opening ceremonies were performed.

Once all the opening announcements were finished it was time for the fun to start and the tidy lines became a stampede for the games, on offer under the various marquees and of course, the free kanom.

Throughout the morning there were various performances on the large stage close to Wat Pasak.
It really is a delight to be at such an event and see the effort made by the whole community to make a special day for the children.

In between performances by children, from all the attending schools, there were prizes given away, ranging from boxed milk to big cuddly toys to bicycles.

The dancing shows were fantastic to watch and it was obvious that all the children had put a lot of effort into practising their routines and they should all be very proud of themselves.
I’m sure also that many teachers and parents worked hard behind the scenes with the wonderful costumes worn for the performances.
From the tiny infants, excitedly giggling their way through their acts, to the older kids turning in very laudable routines, they all put in a huge effort and a great show.
For me, whilst they were all very good, special praise should go to the three acts featured in the video clips below.

The traditional Thai dancing always holds me spellbound when performed so well.
The girls from Pasak School did a fantastic job with their lively number.The lead dancer for much of the routine, Best, looked very relaxed and professional and has that killer smile to top it off.And I can tell you that that smile is natural, brightens my day everytime I go to teach.
Hope you don’t mind girls, but my personal favourite was the traditional dance and drum number. In the heat of the day I think these boys deserve a medal for what was clearly quite an exhausting routine for ones so young. The lead Drum boy pulled off a wonderful flowing performance as did the mock fighting dancers with their cymbals.
All our children appeared to have a great time. Jack couldn’t believe his luck with so much kanom around and everytime i turned around he was eating something.
In the marquees there were stands where the children could aim at targets with catapults; knock cans down with balls, throw hoops over bottles or roll metal balls onto targets.
There was a large marquee for the infants with lots of colouring books and lots of adults there to help and make a fuss of them. I also saw children playing some sort of board game that looked similar to scrabble.
Right in front of the Temple was the obligatory bouncy castle and a small merry-go-round.
The kids were treated to a fly over by a motorised paraglider,(not sure if it was arranged or not)
There was so much fun and excitement to enjoy that alot of children were ready for home by 1pm as the heat got ever more intense.
It was clear that the children in this friendly community all had a wonderful time as do thousands of children throughout Thailand during this great annual event.
Personally I think this day should be adopted worldwide…cliche or not..the children are our future.

Childrens Day is an annual event in Thailand, held on the second weekend in January, where a lot of effort is put into making a special day for all children.

Personally I prefer it to Xmas as there is no religious pretence, just blatant spoiling of the children for a day.

Indeed many children get more than one day as the schools often hold their own ‘Childrens Day’ on the Friday, as they did at Pasak School, where I teach.

It was not an easy decision as to where to take the children from Stratton House on Childrens Day; so many events, large and small, to choose from.

In the end we elected to follow advice given by a local friend and take them to Airforce 41 Base, close to Chiang Mai Airport, where, we were told , there would be several aircraft on display and lots of interesting stuff going on.

Hindsight is a pretty useless thing as, but in hindsight it was not such a good descision for us.

It certainly was a big affair with thousands of local families attending. Our problem was the numbers and lay-out. From the car parking area there was quite along route to walk to get to where all the aircraft and activities were.

This route was lined with hundreds of stalls selling all manner of clothes, toys, nic-nacs, food, etc; so many distractions for the kids within a narrow walkway packed with hundreds of people.

Within 10 minutes we had lost the two older boys. Although confident that they could look after themselves we still needed to locate them incase an emergency caused us to need to leave. Everyone had been issued with a card with phone number to ring if our group got seperated.

Leaving the other children at The Bouncy Castle with Wasana, our house Mum, myself and Boon went on a search. Nearly 2 hours later after much searching and numerous tannoy calls we bumped into the 2 boys on the way back to the car, blissfully unaware of the stress they had caused.

Lucky it was Childrens Day and they got away with  stern instruction not to wander off again. In view of the crowds and difficulty in keeping the group together we then left Airforce 41 and drove into Chiang Mai to Kad Suan Kaow Shopping Mall where there was a special Childrens Day playground set up in the centre ‘garden’.

After lunch in the Food Court in the lower level of the Mall we took the Children to the fun and games in the central garden area.

The two older boys were given the job of acting as extra eyes to keep an eye out for the younger ones as they joined the fun.

Being a much more contained area the crowds were not such a problem and the kids had a great afternoon.

It was late afternoon , early evening when they got their special Childrens Day surprise, made possible by the generous efforts of the Faa Gamma fundraising team in Australia.

The team kindly held a special Xmas appeal to raise money to purchase bicycles for the children to use and enjoy.

We were able to buy four bicycles for the children to share and these were presented to the children on their return to Stratton House.

Apologies for the poor photo quality.

Many thanks to our good friend Heather and all her team; the kids love the bikes and use them everyday as soon as they return from school.

For more photos from Childrens Day please visit our photobucket album here.