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.
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.
Due to heavy colds we didn’t go swimming this weekend so on site activity was called for.
A great liking for art already established we decided to try the children at producing some seasonal greeting cards.
Using some simple designs taken from the internet we set the children to work with felt tips, latex glue and tinsel, with some great results.
This proved such a popular activity that we now hope to establish a range of greeting cards for purchase in our, soon to open, on-line shop.
Because we are only caring for 3 children at the moment and the activity is on a totally voluntary basis, the volume of original handmade selections will be limited but we also hope to soon be in a position to produce quality prints of the originals.
These will be on sale at bargain prices. They may well be too late for use this year, with Christmas so near and postal services under the usual seasonal strain. But hey!…why not think ahead and have that extra special card to send next year?
In the same vein we hope to use prints of the best of the childrens general artwork to extend the range with cards for all occassions.
The general art work will also be available as A4 poster prints.
For connoisseurs amongst you, although none of the designs are Picasso or Renoir standard, in my eyes, they are none the less beautiful because each one is done with heart and soul by children who are deserving of the nurturing care that you can help us provide.
With a view to producing an ongoing line of cards we would like to welcome you to a preview of the first offerings in the ‘Because You Care’ range.
