The Karate Kid...

Last week, Henry started karate lessons for the very first time.  The class is mixed ages and experience levels, so he is having to "catch up" a bit.  The instructor, Master Garris, is funny but tough.  Last night Master Garris discussed how many degrees are in a circle and used that to explain to the children how their bodies should align during the different moves.  Hmmm.  Perhaps that went just a bit over Henry's head...

Here Savannah, the most experienced student in the front, leads the "crescent kick" routine...

The children warm up for the first 15 minutes of class, with a variety of special kicks.

Towards the end of the hour, Henry pointed to his legs and then made "prayer hands" at his face meaning "My legs are tired."  Ha ha ha... I was afraid Master Garris, standing at the front now, would notice and make him do push-ups (the standard "punishment").

I must admit, I'm surprised that Henry has returned so willingly all 3 subsequent nights of practice because it definitely is NOT easy and there is almost no talking among the students, so it's a relatively serious hour, not to mention all of Master Garris's commands are in Chinese (or Korean??).  I don't know because I don't know what in the world he's saying.  Somehow Henry knows what to repeat though which baffles me.

On the first day of lessons last week, everyone was asked to go around the room and introduce themselves and explain why they are taking karate.  As you can imagine, several of the students said, "Because my mom is making me."  or "Because my dad is making me."

Henry's response:  "To beat up my big brother."

So perhaps he already has the fundamentals of karate down... focus and determination.