Yellow Belt

So, Karate. Squeaker has been taking karate lessons since the beginning of the year. Some of our reasons for putting him in karate were to develop:

• strength (to sit in a chair for longer than 30 seconds)
• balance (to not fall out of said chair each time he sits down)
• discipline (to follow through with a task)
• attention (to follow directions)
• individuality (to do something that his brother is NOT)
• body awareness (to move where he intends to move without knocking stuff over)
• coordination (to move without falling over, period.)

We are now mid-March... 2.5 months into it, and the yellow belt testing was this evening.

The whole thing was about 45 min. They had to do a variety of things, including what you just saw above. In addition, there was a great deal of strikes, kicks, balancing, pushups, and kiai-ing. In the end, here is what I have learned:

• He is such a cutie patootie in his little karate uniform!
• He is a very hard worker when someone else is yelling at him!
• He does best in a 1:1 environment, no doubt.
• But, he CAN pull it together when he is having a hard time, with big tears running down his cheek, and finish up his task accurately.
• He has improved on overall balance, strength, and coordination.
• He still has trouble following auditory directions in a visually busy environment.
• He makes the funniest "mean" face.
• He makes his parents the proudest parents EVER!

It was quite a site to see this 4 year old with two older boys (perhaps 9 and 11) and an older girl (perhaps 7) all lined up doing the same thing. He did a fantastic job, better than I ever could have imagined and I hope he knows what a great job he did. Something tells me he does: