My first scorpion sting!!!

From Facebook last month.......

"Can't sleep cos in pain.
Get up to get ibuprofen.
Get stung by scorpion.
Wasn't the painkiller run I was hoping for...
But my Primary Cultural Informant and Everyone on Natural Cambodia fb group told me I'm not going to die, so that's something."

preschool

We were excited to see this in our son's bag after school the other day. He LOVES  trucks, planes, boats etc, and these days is also really into counting things. So a maths worksheet using vehicles is so fun for him!

The season of town festivities, heat, looming goodbyes and homeschool resources.

If only my camera wasn't broken I would have taken photos of all the decorations that have been going up in town over the last little while. It's all so colourful and festive, its only our 4th Khmer New Year in Siem Reap so it still feels like a novelty after years in Phnom Penh.

This morning was our last tuk tuk ride into town before school shuts for KNY. All the big roads have stars dangling across and the river is lined with water fountains spurting water up out of the river, as well as huge circular white structures which I don't really know how to explain. The main bridge has yellow flower light shades on and above it. Tuk tuk rides used to be something I would normally only do in holidays, so catching a tuk tuk along a decorated river feels very holiday-like!

It felt like Cambodia had no seasons in my first year here. It was just hot all the time, and it was my first time my year wasn't planned out by the academic year. But now this time of year, hot season, does feel  hotter to me than the rest of the year (although both this year and last year we had some weirdly cold wet days in March /April). Combined with it being the biggest holiday of the year makes April feel quite different to every other month.

And then for the expat, its when the goodbyes are about to begin. Ever year some people go away for a month or more for "The Summer" , and others leave Cambodia for good. Which means that they spend these months selling and giving away everything in their house!

This year we have received some kids books and activities. At anytime this would be exciting, but especially so now as we are moving towards finishing up at preschool at the end of this year.

Unrelated to the season we were lent a box of homeschool resources that another family aren't using at the moment. It works out well as it will give us something to look through and work out if that's what we want to use or if we want to buy curriculum, or some combination. Otherwise I think I would be feeling like I have to research things more and have it all planned out and buy things ahead of time. Right now I feel like we've got plenty of books to read to the kids as well as space to place and things like puzzles as well as some counting activities and some phonics materials. So we'll start with that and work it out as we go along.

Kid free time is town these days

It has been such a cool time capsule experience to read some of my old blog posts from about a decade ago and remember how life was then, it's made me want blog more about our current days.

There were a few great months last year when I rode my bike back and to preschool in the mornings. From July last year until around November I had the mornings at home to myself. Being at home was time to get everything done in the kitchen and on the computer. Pre kids I used to ride all the time so it was fun to be able to do it again. And so so great to be at home without the kids for a couple of hours, cooking dinner was much quicker. Then in the afternoons we sometimes had people over or went to visit friends.

Since we moved there isn't really enough time to come back home while the kids are at preschool. Kind of frustrating, but it turns out I still can have some time to myself, just not cooking dinner- but we seem to have survived.  Some days I go food shopping or other errands, sometimes I see friends or do stuff with books and online (not much internet at home). There are a few friends who I only had spent time with on playdates before, but since moving I've met up with them in town sans kids for breakfast or a walk (a walk along the river!! I love living in Siem Reap!!I missed walking in my first years here in PP).

Weekday afternoon playdates have become much less of a feature since we moved. We used to visit or be visited weekly, but living a bit further out that can't happen. We haven't had expat kids over yet, and we mostly only go out to play on Saturdays now. So I haven't seen friends for awhile.. hopefully soon! There are a few leaving Cambodia in June, hoping for at least one more playdate.