I have mentioned several times over the last year that Michael has really wanted to take karate lessons. At the beginning of the summer, I told him that he could start classes this fall if he behaved and helped out (by playing with Sean) this summer. To make sure that I didn’t forget, he started praying every night for karate lessons. Well, his prayers were answered and he took his first week of karate lessons last week. He was so excited!
Both my husband and I thought that martial arts would be great for Michael. He’s a happy, confident kid…but he could use some additional help with controlling his tongue. (That boy is a talker…like his mama! He’s bright too, so he will grasp a concept really quickly in school and then talk/distract the other kids from learning. So far, his teachers have thought that this tendency is kind of cute, but it’s not…and it’s going to get old quickly!) Anyway, the delay was more of an issue of scheduling. With work, school, church and social activities, our family schedule is already packed. I always marvel at parents whose kids are in 2, 3, or 4 activities outside of school, but that definitely will not work for us. One extracurricular activity per kid is all that we can handle! It also took us a while to figure out where to send Michael to school. We narrowed it down to four dojos – D.K. Park Taekwondo in Jersey City or Staten Island where our friend John teaches; Next Evolution Mixed Martial Arts Academy that our friend Mike owns; Tiger Schulmann’s Karate where several friends send their kids and Genyukan which we ended up choosing. I recommend all four places, because each of them is a great option. We eventually chose Genyukan though because it’s literally a block away from our home (no commute…yes!). I had also heard great things about the dojo and (best of all) both Michael and my husband felt great about it after Michael took a trial class there.
The first day of karate class last week kind of threw me off guard. We arrived at the dojo and I dropped Michael off for class. As we were leaving, Sean lost it. Sean is a pretty calm child, so I was totally shocked. He started thrashing around and wailing, “I don’t want to go! No! I miss my brother! I miss my brother! I LO-OVE HIM!” He was acting so out of character that Michael started to tear up a bit. This continued all the way as we crossed the street back to our home. Little old ladies were looking at me like I was abusing Sean. I tried to explain that he just missed his brother, but they didn’t look as if they believed me. I forget what finally I bribed Sean to calm down with once we got home. (I think that it was raisins.) Once he settled down and we talked, I realized that it was just too much for him to have to say “bye” twice in one day (school, then karate) to his beloved brother. Sean doesn’t have a complete grasp of time intervals, so he didn’t initially understand that Michael was only going to be gone for one hour at karate school…not for many hours like after regular school drop-off. Once he realized that, he was fine. Whew!
I’m really happy that Michael is enjoying himself so far. He comes home from class and tries to teach Sean everything that he just learned. I love it, but it’s breaking my heart a little bit…he’s getting to be such a big boy! When did babies (my baby!) start participating in organized sports?! Sniff.
(On a related note, there is a nice little article about the value of martial arts classes for kids – both boys and girls – in the November issue of Parents magazine. (I’m not sure if it’s on newsstands yet though, because I have a subscription.)
So…are your kids involved in any organized afterschool programs (sports, arts, music, etc.)? If so, I would love your tips on balancing your time together as a family with school, work, your kids extracurricular activities and such. What helps you?