Day X

Today was "Day X" for Thys. When we arrived here a month or so ago, the IICS 6th graders had just embarked upon a great adventure they had been gearing up all year for. We jumped in when we did and, well, it was baptism by fire if you will. The students essentially take the year to think about a passion that is theirs in life (examples: sports, cooking, different kinds of crafting, drama, cars, whatever!) and they link their passion to a global issue. Thys chose woodworking as his passion, linking it to the issue of deforestation. Thys decided that he wanted to raise money to do some tree planting; over the course of a week or so he visited the primary grades at IICS and did a small presentation for them on his exhibition project. He petitioned for donations in order to raise money to plant trees on their school campus. At the end of their "action week" Thys had raised about over 200 lira (about $150)! Each class had raised enough money for at least one or two trees. Jakes Prep (kindergarten) class is beginning a unit on trees, so they helped Thys do the tree-planting, creating their own little IICS orchard.

Today was "Day X" at IICS, where the 6th graders held an assembly for parents and primary grades, and conducted additional activities. They sang, danced and presented their passions for all to see. They even did a lip-synced version of "We are the World-Haiti", much to the crowds amusement and great pleasure. If I can get my hands on the video, I'll post!

After the assembly we were able to walk around and see the pinboard demonsatrations all of the 6th graders had put up in the "exhibition hall". Throughout the course of the morning, each of the students were given a 15 minute block of time to hold a workshop, showing all students and parents what they chose as their passion. Some held cooking classes, soccer shootouts, or a mini-concert. Thys conducted a woodworking workshop, where he showed a room full of students how to use different woodworking tools and what kind of projects were possible to make.

Can I just say how proud of him I was/am? He jumped into this huge project without any gentle transition into school. He was anxious about it at first, nervous about not only being the new kid, but about the huge umbrella of work and effort this project was that suddenly hung over him. I was proud of him as he spent the week fundraising, proud as we planted trees together with the 5 and 6 year olds, and even more proud of him today as he confidently taught a room full of people some woodcarving basics.

Years ago Thys conducted an FHE at home on the Creation. He was only 6 years old, but he wanted to teach the lesson. He taught us how the world was created in the beginning, and how the beauties of the world unfolded during the process, the seven days. He presented some of his artwork, pictures of the earth he had drawn for us to see. Tears welled in his little boy eyes as he told us that God wants us to help take care of the earth and that it is our responsibility. I see that stewardship is as important to him today as it seems to always have been.

Bravo, Thys. I hope you will always look for ways to make the world a better place in small and simple ways.

Thys, Jake & Derin planting fruit trees

The Prep class

6th graders dancing

6th graders singing

Thys explains his passion/action to Ms. Laycock

Thys teaches a class on woodworking

The 6th graders cheer as "Day X" comes to an end!