My daughter's first lesson

[JR 137]

I agree with you, Spartacus. However, Kathryn's a bit different than most kids. She's a bit of a perfectionist. If it's something she's determined to do, won't quit until she's done it right. Sometimes to a fault. This summer, we went to a park that has kids' monkey bars. They're about 4 feet or so from the ground, and about 7 or 8 bars long. She tried to get all the way across, but couldn't. She'd get about half way and fall. She got up, and tried again. And again. And again. I kept trying to help her, but she refused. After about a solid 5 minutes of it, I had to pull her away. That's how she takes on a lot of things.

Her motivation has always come from within. Never once argued about going to gymnastics when she went, soccer, basketball, etc. Those were all 8 week or so programs, so perhaps that's why she maintained in interest in them. I've just never had to force her to do anything, other than clean up her mess or get dressed in the morning lol.

Now that I think about it, it might be a good thing to take her once or twice a week for 8 weeks or so, then take a week or two off. I think the biggest reason why kids generally don't get sick of things like soccer, basketball, football is because there's an off-season. They may pick up another sport once one ends, but there's an end/change. MA doesn't have that. Perhaps that's a reason why there's the turnover there is. Just spitballing here.

[bushido_man96]

I'm happy for you and your child's experience here! Its a great thing, and it sounds like you are on the right track to keep her interested and excited about going. It also sounds like she's really self-motivated, which is a great thing. Do keep up posted on her training, and your training!

[JR 137]

I'm happy for you and your child's experience here! Its a great thing, and it sounds like you are on the right track to keep her interested and excited about going. It also sounds like she's really self-motivated, which is a great thing. Do keep up posted on her training, and your training!

Absolutely. Part of starting this thread was to use it as a journal of sorts, to get pointers from people who have/had their kids in the MA, and get pointers/perspectives from people who teach children MA.

[JR 137]

So last class, she finally came across someone who she couldn't back into a corner. The kid refused to step backward during sparring. I wanted to see how she'd react to someone who didn't back up, and she did great. She held her ground and didn't get frustrated, but more importantly she didn't get intimidated. It looked like a 5 year old white belt Kyokushin slug fest, where they were all offense and no one was blocking. Again, it's non-contact at this point, so bear with me.

After I explained what no contact meant after her last class, she got it.

[Spartacus Maximus]

Some children do have some natural advantages such higher level of concentration, or certain personality traits like perseverance. These qualities, however, are not fixed and must be allowed to develop further through encouragement. If taking some time away is necessary, then it may be the best solution.

For young children though, the best method by far is making the martial arts(or whatever it may be) a natural, routine activity. A half hour or so of martial arts fun every day is better than a one or two hour session two nights per week.

[Alberic Blau]

Involving your child into martial arts will probably be one of the best

moves you'll do in her life! That's personally grade A parenting,

seriously!

[JR 137]

Involving your child into martial arts will probably be one of the best

moves you'll do in her life! That's personally grade A parenting,

seriously!

It takes more than teaching karate for grade a parenting, but I'll take it

[JR 137]

It's been a few weeks now. She's been going once a week, on Saturday. Getting here in during the week has been a lot harder than I thought it would be. She just turned 5 the day after Thanksgiving, and the kindergarten transition of not getting nap time is tough for her. She's been wiped out a lot of days during the week, so just going on Saturday has been a good balance for her. She's got other stuff during the week too - Zumba on Wednesday, and Girl Scouts on some Thursdays. I do some karate stuff with her here and there during the week, so not all is lost. She likes hitting the focus mitts and blocking the blocker bat or whatever it's called, so she's still improving.

She surprises me every class with what she knows. She's really picked up on a lot of details that I didn't think she'd get.

There's 2 teachers who alternate teaching Saturday's kids class, my CI and an assistant instructor. My CI doesn't go into any great depth explaining techniques; he teaches more by example than verbally. He's more of 'look in the mirror and follow me' with a few verbal cues. The other instructor throughly explains everything, down to the finest details. Neither approach is right or wrong, just different. Like me, she's far better with my CI's approach. When I'm given too many things to think about, I think too much about every little thing. She's probably the same way.

Funny thing I've noticed with karate class... Every day when I pick her up after school, I ask her what she learned today. 99% of the time I get a shoulder shrug and have to ask her more specific questions. When we get home after karate, I ask her to tell her mom what she learned in class. She always has an immediate answer.

[JR 137]

Kathryn's been improving a lot lately. She had trouble with her roundhouse kick and basic blocks, but she's really caught on and getting quite good at them.

The assistant instructor gave her a great compliment last week - she told Kathryn how she loves having her in class because she always tries her best, doesn't get distracted by a few of the others, and it's easy to tell she loves class.

Today was her first "failure" so to speak. The instructors pulled out 1" pine boards and let the students break them with a downward heel kick. Kathryn (and one student a few years older than her) couldn't break it. She tried several times, but kept hesitating at the very last second, and didn't get through the board. The parent sitting next to me chuckled about how focused and determined she was. She kept her composure very well.

After they bowed out, she started crying when I went over to her. I knew she was sad, but didn't think she'd cry. Before she started crying, I was getting ready to tell her how proud of her I was. I told her I was proud that she tried her best and didn't give up, no matter how hard it was. The kids all surprised me by how supportive they were too.

She also thought I'd be upset that she didn't break it. I asked her if I've ever gotten mad at her when she tried her best and didn't give up. She said no, but it didn't still help much.

All I could do was hug her and kiss her and tell her how much I love her and how proud of her I am.

She wanted to keep the board to practice at home.

Edited January 31, 2016 by JR 137

[Bulltahr]

Not much i can say mate. It's such a magic thing to share it all with our kids. Especially father-daughter. I know what you have there. Love her taking it home to practice on!!