School Holidays

The main Thai school holidays have started. They last for two months from the middle of March until the middle of May. It is the hottest time of the year and it also covers Thai New Year. So every day Ben and Jenny are scrambling around the house from morning to night. I had forgotten how peaceful it is when they are both at school.

In one way, I look forward to the school holidays because school days are a bit of an effort. We need to do the bedtime routine and get the kids to bed early the night before. We need to get up early, cajole the kids through the morning routine and then get them to school. We need to pick the kids up in the afternoon. It is all a bit limiting on what we can do in the day. Now the school holidays have started, we can do whatever we want.

On the other hand, after a couple of weeks of school holidays, I start to miss the order and routine of school days. During school holidays, we often get lazy about putting the kids to bed. It is easier to let them play until they are exhausted and fall asleep. They are remorseless and play all day. We have to try to keep up, control their exuberance, referee their little quarrels and generally limit the damage. It is great to see them so active and happy but it also leaves us feeling quite exhausted by the end of the day.

We haven’t done anything special yet this holiday. At the moment, Pon is suffering from tendonitis in her shoulder so she is a bit limited in what she can do. We go for the odd trip to the beach, park or a restaurant.

This is also the time of year we usually do our annual trip to Pon’s home village. We drive around, find a few nice spots to stay between here and there, spend a week at the village and then come back. As pon is currently suffering a little, we will give it at least another couple of weeks to clear up before we think about going.