Just in case you were wondering what the Stratton House kids were upto last weekend; on the Saturday we took them with us to San Kam Paeng. Whilst I was busy with the Huay Sai English Camp, Jack, Yong and May enjoyed the Hot Springs facilities with Wasana and Boon. Not surprisingly the most popular activity being playing in the gardens swimming pool.
For more photos please visit our photo album here.
Khruu Khemtong Punyoyai,from Huay Sai School has been running an annual English Camp for several years now.
This years event was held at San Kampaeng Hot Springs on Saturday 19th december and Sunday 20th.
In total there were 53 students from Huay Sai school, who attended the weekend camp at a very reasonable cost of 100 baht each.
The weekend kicked off with us all meeting at Huay Sai School at 8.30 on Saturday morning. As well as myself, there were also 2 Dutch ladies, both living in Huay Sai and an English Lady from a village nearby to the school, all going along as volunteer English language trainers.
We squeezed as many of the students as we could into our bus to help with the transport and headed off to the venue.
San Kampaeng Hotsprings is such a good choice of venue; with camping at very economical prices; the ambience of the gardens and of course, the luxury of the Hot Springs.
First job of the day was for Khruu Khem tong to officially open the camp, assign groups to trainers and outline the first days activities.
The ethos of the weekend was that above all it should be fun. All students were told not to worry about making mistakes with the language and not to take it to seriously, but to enjoy the experience of the weekend and the opportunity to practise their English with English speakers.
Each trainer had 10 or 11 students and we had a very good workbook to follow, carefully compiled by Khruu Khemtong.The day was split into short work sessions; both sitting with the book and strolling around the grounds for survey and map drawing;and freetime for both children and trainers to relax.
As might be expected, all the trainers found the first day was quite difficult, with many students very shy about practising their English.However, with the groups being mixed ages, there tended to be at least one who understood more and was able to help translate to the rest of the group.
As well as the exercises in the workbook Khruu Khemtong regularly led all the children in singing simple English language songs.
The children had plenty of time inbetween the ‘work’ to enjoy the facilities at the Hot Springs, paddling in the man made Hot Spring ‘stream’, wandering around the site when the work day finished at 4pm, swimming in the big pool.
In the evening the whole group gathered to discuss their day with Khruu Khenmtong working hard to encourage the children to use their English to describe their activities.
There was more singing and after dinner it was Party Time. Whilst the 2 Dutch trainers went home to sleep, Sue and myself stayed and Sue really got into the spirit of the Party with an impromptu dance that got all the kids on their dancing toes to.
Just before the party started a large fire was lit as the evening went on the children cooked kaow lam and toasted crackers on the fire.
It was great to see the respect the kids had for the fire; with many rural families still using open fires to cook over , I guess they learn that lesson early.
All the children appeared to have a great time and were a very social crowd.
Every now and again one of the students would run up with either kaow lam or a cracker and politely offer it to one of us.
Karaoke singing was popular. although I was surprised to see the best singer hiding under a table whilst performing, clearly shy to perform infront of his friends.
This is most surprising as I recalled having seen this lad performing with the upmost confidence at Chiang Mai Sunday Market some months ago.
When the party wound down at around 9.30pm the children went off to their alotted tents and for the most part settled well and were all very well behaved.
I got the best sleep I’ve had in a long time, maybe i should buy a tent and put it in the garden.
It was lovely waking up to the peaceful surroundings and relaxing atmosphere of the Hot Springs gardens. Joining the children soaking our feet in the warm waters of the stream helped counter the chill of the early morning.
Sunday was much more of a free day and the first activity of the day was swimming in the pool. Although all the kids were there it was mostly the boys that got into the pool, the girls possibly too shy.
After breakfast and roll call and singing the camp song we split into our groups for a final ‘work’ session.
Later, all the trainers confirmed having a similar experience in that most of the children seemed transformed in confidence and willingness to use their English language.
At around 11.30 the school Director, Mr Hirun Chainu,came to officially close the camp and it was then time to leave.
I think Khruu Khemtong deserves much praise and congratulations for working so hard to produce an excellent confidence building experience for the students. I look forward to working closely with her on further plans for expanding on this experience and giving these students and others more opportunity to encounter situations where they can practise their English with English speakers.
If you are interested in volunteering, either as an English teacher or maybe even, planning ahead, you think you maybe interested in helping with next years English Camp then please contact me. Khruu Khemtong is keen on the possibility of being able to accommodate more students on the camp but obviously this means a need for more trainers to make this possible.
In the meantime we would also be happy to hear from anyone planning on coming soon who would be interested in teaching at a local village school. There are many that would welcome an English speaking volunteer. If you contact us here we can supply details of requirements for the correct visa and work permit, depending on your planned length of stay, and offer assistance in arranging these documents.
For all the photos from the weekend please visit our photo album here.
Whilst experimenting with what the kids could have fun making, I purchased some photo sticker paper, hoping that we could print some of their work in sticker form.
As it happened the printer I use found the paper too slippy.
Not to waste it I showed the kids, and Yong was first to produce her own sticker that she now sports proudly on her school bag.
Another important day(16th) for me and a chance to further ensure The Stratton ABC Foundations involvement in the local community.
A couple of weeks back, at Jacks sportsday, I was approached by Khruu Khemtong Punyoyai from Huay Sai school. She told me about a weekend English Camp, that she has been running for the last few years. This years camp is taking place this weekend at San Kampaeng Hot Springs. At the time she was simply interested in me going a long to observe and possibly advise on further improvements for the future.
Unfortunately one of the Dutch volunteer teachers, who was supposed to be taking part, has had to return home and so Khruu Khemtong has now asked me to take her place.
Not only that, but, thanks to a very nice , constructive conversation today, it is my hope that we can work closely together on a common objective.This is to help improve English language use, understanding and pronounciation throughout the local area.It appears that we have very similar views on this subject and have discussed numerous strategies that we may employ in the future.
Although the main aim of the Stratton ABC Foundation is to give a safe, secure and caring home to disadvantaged and at risk children in and around Chiang Mai, looking around I see that the term disadvantaged could relate to many many children in the area of Education, and especially English language learning. To this end I am happy to use what spare time I can find to work in partnership with Khruu khemtong to further her efforts.
Any organisation looking to help the disadvantaged has to look to the future. It is very much the case that fluency in the English language leads to much better career opportunities, which would hopefully then lead to a lessening of the sort of circumstances that leads to children needing placements in homes such as our own.
It has to be the best aim, not only to offer the placements to those in need, but to do all we can to reduce that need.
Another productive day yesterday, partly due to the school in Banthi still being part closed due to Teachers being at some event elsewhere.
This meant I had much more time than I expected to work on filling the ‘shelves’ in our online shop which I hope to have truely online by the end of the weekend.
I have a meeting with webmaster Ally on Friday.
As with all this computer technology it will take me time to acclimatise to using the software to its best potential so you will no doubt see continual changes, hopefully for the better as time progresses.
In line with our wishes to ensure high standards of both care and security for the Children at Stratton House we have now prepared I.D cards for both permanent staff and any future volunteers.
It is already Foundation policy that all volunteers will need to show an up to date police check and they will also be required to carry our ID card at all times.These cards will have photo, name , date of birth , nationality and passport number and will be valid for a limited time before needing renewal. The reverse side will show the information in Thai language.
The first of these cards, to be issued to permanent staff will be in effect from 21st of this month and it will be regularly highlighted on this website, and any promotional material, that anyone approached on our behalf should ask to see the persons ID, it will carry our logo and should only be considered valid if carrying our company stamp.
If you have any contact with persons claiming to be acting on behalf of our Foundation who does not show this I.D please contact us with details.
What a great tool the internet can be. and what a wonderful thing search engines are. Yesterday we received a lovely email from a lady in the USA who had mistakenly followed a contact link to us(at our Foundation website) after searching for her friend John.
The lady Jennifer, made a generous donation to The Stratton ABC Foundation in the process and although a refund was offered she wouldn’t hear of it, and I’m glad to report that she is now in contact with the correct John.
Jennifer is clearly a caring lady who looks to donate something to children in need every christmas time in honor of her late father Ted Lavery.
All here at Stratton House would like to thank Jennifer for her generosity and kind thoughts and shall make merit at our local Temple tomorrow morning in honor of her Father.
Sunday has so far been swim day and, after a mornings play at home, the children chose it again; given the choice between swimming and the park. As it was they all cried off after just half an hour, saying the water was too cold.
It was certainly on the chilly side when we first got in but I think it may have been more to do with us being the only ones there this week.
We were in need of a trip to Macro and, this still being quite a novelty for our kids, I think the shopping trip was almost as popular as the swimming or the park.
Once again they were all very well behaved today, heeding requests to sit properly when in the vehicle and not asking for things whilst we were shopping.
I may be repeating myself here but we have really seen rapid improvement in general behaviour, not that its been so bad, but just those simple things like politeness, clearing things away, learning when to stop an argument before it goes to far.
In particular this week we saw one of the children begin to grow up in a big way. The child in question has clearly had a tendency to go into crying fits if reprimanded or not getting their own way. Having had a couple such incidents I decided it was time to take steps to curtail this behaviour, with rapid results. The last time it happened I instructed everyone, children and staff alike, to ignore the crying , which went on for quite some time and was quite distressing at times. Eventually I asked Boon to explain to them that they needed to calm down and apologise for the behaviour that had started the incident. This did the trick at the time and we explained that, as they were growing up, they needed to accept and understand when they had done something wrong without such a fuss.
A couple of days later there was an incident at the dinner table with the same child. When reprimanded they stopped the row they were making and sat properly when asked, without the previously expected tears. Later House Mother Wasana told me that the child had said that I had taught them not to cry when they got told off. Later that evening we had a ‘Gold Star’ ceremony with the award going to the child in question to acknowledge their important step in growing up…..the smile of pride that resulted could have lit up the City.
Friday 11th Nov
Take a day when the schools are closed and House Mother has her day off and you get a day when I can’t get much of my own work done.
Thankfully the kids slept in till nearly 9am, giving me my first lay-in for ages. But then it was up and at it preparing breakfast for the hungry threesome.
As it happened I had a plan to go into Chiang Mai later in the day to purchase a paper guillotine in order to make a proper job of the greetings cards we are producing.
This being the case I figured it work work well to take the children in to town as well and take them to Buak Hard Park for a couple of hours.
So a deal was struck where I gave them some more card designs to work on quietly in the house if they wanted, whilst I got a little admin stuff done, or else they could play outside and not worry about having to be quiet.
I could have guessed the result.
They elected to do more drawing with Boon.
Somboon has always been a keen sketcher himself and he loves to pass on hints as to how the children can improve their skills.
It has been a delight to see how well Boon connects with the kids and how they are keen tolisten to his instruction.
I think he calls on his days as a Novice Monk and uses methods used by the elder Monks on him.
So after lunch, ably produced by Somboon, we headed into town and to DK Book store where I got my paper cutter, envelopes and a few more accessories to enhance future designs for the cards.
That done it was off to Buak Hard Park as promised.
This is a lovely spot on the bottom left hand corner of the Old City that, as well as a sports courtyard and large ponds, has a walking path all the way around and a childrens play area at the far left side of the park.
This may well become another regular as if affords a safe play time for the kids whilst the adults can watch from a distance and get some relaxation time.
I was most impressed with how well Jack made friends with other boys there.
When he first arrived at Stratton House just a month ago he was very reluctant to interact with others on our trips out.
For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.
Thursday saw me having my first lessons, from my friend Ally, in how to operate the online shop that she has been setting up for us. I would ask you to bear with me as it often takes my brain a while to become acclimatised to these technological advances.
Hopefully it won’t take too long as Ally has managed to find a very user friendly software package.
So, no hard and fast promises but I hope that we may be able to officially ‘open’ the shop at the beginning of Xmas week.
Too late for those Xmas cards I know, but hopefully we’ll have a decent range of interesting products that can help us boost our funds.
As well as the childrens handmade art and craft products, greetings cards, postcards, etc , we will also be stocking other items such as wood carvings, Thai silks and the like in the hope of optimising the shops potential for fund raising.
Any ideas for popular items to have in the shop will be very welcome.
