Max took his first karate lesson today. I thought karate would be a good place for him to learn where hitting and kicking is appropriate and to practice discipline, courage, and respect, while also getting his boyish aggression and energy out. He's on the young side, so the teacher wanted to assess if he had the attention span for the 30 minute class — his physical abilities don't matter at this point. For the first 15 minutes he followed the class perfectly doing all the exercises and he looked like he was really enjoying himself. Then he was paired with an older kid who was his height (I think he was about 6 years old — the boy on the right in the top photo) to take turns hitting and kicking while holding a pad and he got really scared. I watched his face turn from interest to fear. Max had a lot of trouble holding the pad for this kid to kick. Each time the other boy whacked the pad Max got more fearful until he gave up and ran to my arms. We then sat on the sidelines and watched the rest of the class. I asked repeatedly, but he had no interest in trying it again after that. When class was over we talked to the sensei (Mirako) and determined that he is quite capable of taking the class if he decides he wants to. Fortunately, they aren't charging me any money until Max decides that he's willing to commit to the class and we are welcome to to come again for a few more times. We stayed about 10 minutes afterward exploring the space and taking turns hitting the pads. I was hoping if mommy and he did it together he'd feel more comfortable trying the class again. While driving home Max asked me why the teacher was saying so many weird words. So now I'm trying to reiterate the concept of multiple languages and to teach him a little Japanese so he understands what the teacher is saying. I hope he'll want to try the class again next thursday.
school = dojo
teacher = sensei
one= ichi
two= ni
three= san
four = shi
five = go
that's enough for both of us!

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