We are now starting our third week of karate lessons. With two full weeks behind them, my kids are still fanatically excited and I’m almost starting to get used to 3-4 nights a week of just absolute craziness trying to balance our schedules.

I’ve always tried to be that mom who doesn’t say “yes” to too many things. I don’t want my kids to be “over-scheduled” but I also didn’t want to say no to something amazing just because I was afraid it would mean we’d get really busy. I’m glad I decided to sacrifice a little bit of my sanity just this once because the kids really love it.

Both kids got a letter saying they will be ready for promotion at the end of the month and ready to earn their next belt. I need to get the forms signed by their teachers at school and by myself before then so they can advance. There were grades for each kid from the karate teacher stating how he thinks they are doing.

I know the expectations are lower for BB – you can only expect so much in the way of focus, attention and skill from a four year old. She is one of the youngest kids in her class and it shows. The teacher assures us that she is doing great and had really no complaints about her at all.

She is definitely excited to try and pays attention in karate way more than I’ve ever seen her focus at story time at the library or even the dinner table. There are definitely times where the kids are working on something and she so clearly doesn’t “get it” at all but that’s usually only a small chunk of the class so overall I’m very proud of her.

MM as you may remember took longer to get his first stripe than his sister and I think that information lit a fire under him because from then on out he was a lot more focused on doing a good job instead of just socializing. He’s still my goofy little boy and he’s known to get distracted occasionally, but the teacher and I have both noticed a rapid improvement.

He taught the kids that old classic “wax on, wax off” in class on Saturday. Not a single kid got the reference but pretty much every one of the parents cracked up.

The nice thing about these classes, apart from everything else I’ve already said is that I actually kind of enjoy sitting and watching the kids work. Is there really anything cuter than a bunch of kids ages 4-7 or so learning karate? I’m thinking no.