Skills - The Stratton ABC Foundation Childrens Home Chiang Mai

February 2012
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So Much In One Day

Jan 152012

Another full day with so much done. Thanks to help from Anna and Tom it wasn’t just productive and fun but also quite relaxing for me.

The day started off Anna and Tom arriving shortly after breakfast.

They came bearing gifts of some great card model kits, including Tower Bridge and Big Ben.

After a short period helping the kids get started on the models it was time for work hour. We are at the moment having a serious overhaul of our store room, previously treated more like a dumping ground.

We had already emptied the room, swept and cleaned and now the kids are getting to test their practical skills yet again, building new shelves from bamboo.

With Tai showing the most interest in practical exercises and the plan being to create an ordered workshop, he has once again taken charge and got to work designing the shelf units and passing on instruction for measuring out the bamboo needed.

Todays session finished, Anna and Tom then joined some May 2 , Jor and Nu in the kitchen to help prepare a very tasty sweet potato curry for lunch.

After lunch there was more model making before our 2 helpful Volunteers ran an hours English based around an introduction to their 2 home countries, Australia and England.

That finsished it was back to the kitchen to help prepare Salmon fish cakes and more curry for dinner.

With everything ready there was also time for a fun game of Patong .

Pooh and Yue Add A New Mural

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Sep 042011

This afternoon we were visited by two Students from Thaivichitsilp College of Art and Technology. Pooh and his friend Yue were keen to practise their skills and add to our colourful Mural works.

An additional plus to this visit is that Pooh and Yue are interested in coming on a regular basis to hold art workshops for the kids and practice their teaching ability.

This fits perfectly with the Foundations ideals, not only helping the children resident here but in turn giving that opportunity to gain much needed experience to Thai students from the wider community.

Saturday Work- Prep For More Murals

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Sep 032011

This mornings work hour involved washing walls in readiness for a planned mural painting session tomorrow afternoon.

Weather willing we will be getting a visit from a couple of Thai Art students from Thaivichitsilp Art and Technology College, Chiang Mai who are keen to practice there skills here for the children.

Work Done, Weekend Chill

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Aug 212011

After chores are done the weekends are chill out time for the kids. As usual Tai spent extra time studying but also found time for play and practising his guitar skills.

I also managed to catch Gu working on the Saxophone.

Stratton House really is a great place to live with all the art and music mixed in with the sounds of laughter and happy children at play.

With the rain on and off again Saturday saw the board games coming out again.

Local Needs From Local People—Appeal

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Jul 122011

Sorry, having a “Little Britain” day!

With the land purchase and inflation raging our budget is on a tight leash right now. We would like to call again, on any of you who actually live in Chiang Mai or close to, to find it in your hearts to help out if you can.

Our recent appeal for foodstuffs has had little response so far. We continue to hope:)

If not food stuff then here are a few other things we could do with right now to ensure that we can keep our craft and art exercises going.

Wool …..odds and ends and any colour is fine.

Outdoor Emulsion paint….again part tins and any colour is fine…lets keep these murals going, its great for the children’s skills and confidence building.

Varnish or sealer to protect their great work from the rain.

Quality growing soil…we are always looking at expanding our veg plots…..most garden centres do bags of good soil from just 25 baht.

If you can help with any of these items please get in touch using the contact form below.

Don’t Go Mum, The Kids Love You

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Feb 072011

My Mothers visit is sadly getting close to its end with just one week left. In a short time she has made a huge impression on the children here.

Having played, taught new skills,(knitting and crochet), and been the loving Grandma she is it won’t just be me that will miss her greatly when she returns home.

Below you will see some of the images that Mum has caught recently on her camera.

Thanks for coming Mum and for all the support , help and love you have given. I can only hope you are proud of what we have acheived here. This is my life now, this is my family, but you will always be my Mum and I love you very much.

An Afternoon in Buak Hard Park, Chiang Mai

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Dec 142009

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.

xmastree1 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.
draw (Custom) 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.

dk (Custom) 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.
bkhard22 (Custom) 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.