Sendusout

One by one they walked to the platform, took a bow and then found their seats. There were several doctors, a few teachers, a firemen, a policeman, a lawyer, and a singer. The future hopes of each child was announced as they entered in to the familiar tune you hear at every graduation. I waited for Isaiah’s turn. What would they say he wanted to be when he grew up? An astronaut…Isaiah wants to be an astronaut! With the myriad of spaceships and robots covering our bulletin board it was not such a big surprise. A few more children made their way to the front and as Isaiah led us in the opening prayer, KILA’s 8th Annual Moving Up Day was underway.

Over the past year Isaiah has been attending Kids International Learning Academy and as his school year came to an end they had a little graduation ceremony for them today complete with caps, gowns, the passing out of certificates, reciting of memory verses, singing of songs and a special speaker. One of our fellow Nazarene missionaries, Rhonda Ackerman, was the speaker for the morning and shared the classic story of The Little Engine That Could and encouraged each child to do their best and seek God to help them in all that they do.They also handed out awards to each child celebrating their individual strengths based on Howard Gardner’s theory of 7 Kinds of Smarts. Isaiah received the award for Most Resourceful and Science Smart. They also handed out an award for winning first place in a storytelling contest. That’s our little boy! A good communicator and he loves to build things. He uses typical things like legos, blocks and fiddlestix but can also turn a piece of paper into a roof of a garage or a puppy pull toy into a gas station. He has also been designing and building factories lately that pop out birthday cakes complete with frosting and candles at the end.

How I love our children and enjoy celebrating these milestones with them. Isaiah ending his first year of preschool may not seem like such a big deal, but I think it helps bring closure to the end of the school year and it was fun to hear the diversity of awards given to Isaiah’s classmates…, most artistic, most well behaved, most energetic, most friendly, most diligent. We are the same and we are different and I am glad Isaiah went to a school whose teachers recognize these differences. It would be better for all of us to focus more on the areas we are “smart” in and not worry so much about the areas we fall short.