Kids' Korner

Justus was in a wedding recently.

Well, it’s time for another Kids’ Korner, so we’re going to share a little bit about our oldest son and what has been happening in his life in the past little while.

Back in March, we chose to put Caleb and Justus in our church’s Cambodian school. We did this for a variety of reasons, but the main one being that we wanted them to learn to speak Khmer. Angie and I have never actively taught our children Khmer, but we have wanted them to learn from someone who spoke without an English accent. J We know what it is like to hear people speak broken English, and we know that our Khmer is nowhere near being perfect, therefore, we don’t want our children to learn Khmer (or broken Khmer) from us.

The kids in a Tuk tuk

Ever since we put our two boys in the Christian school, their Khmer (especially Caleb’s) has grown in leaps and bounds. They study in 100% Khmer every morning for four days a week. In fact, they just finished the school year and Caleb graduated to the next grade starting in the fall. He is more confident talking to people and playing with kids. He uses his Khmer every day now. We are so thrilled by that.

A little while ago, I was asked to preach at one of our village churches, so Caleb came with me on my motorcycle. When we got there, there were several young boys who had a soccer ball, and Caleb immediately over to them, started speaking in Khmer and asking them if they wanted to play with him. It makes us so happy to see him overcoming his insecurity and fear just by being able to talk to these kids.

Caleb dressed as a ninja.

Now, one of Caleb’s favorite things to do is to invite the neighborhood kids over to our house to play soccer in our yard. It can get a little wild and crazy sometimes, but that’s the way that kids are. He is making friends, sharing his toys and has even given away some of his old toys to the young children. They always have a great time playing together and it is a joy to see Caleb playing and speaking and making friends all through using Khmer.