TPG and Tae Kwon Do

new belt
Originally uploaded by Julie George

TPG has been participating in Tae Kwon Do for about 7 months. It has been a pretty long road for him but he is finally beginning to make some progress. When he first started back in the late summer, he probably sat in time out almost every day for the first few weeks. To reward the students, the teacher, Mr. Nelson, gives the students black stripes (black tape) on their belts to mark their progress. Each student has to get 4 stripes before they can take a belt test to advance to the next level. TPG held onto his white belt for a really long time. He would earn a stripe one day and lose it either immediately or during the next class session. It was really hard to sit back and watch this happen. But, Mr. Nelson is really gifted at working with young people and I trusted him completely. He is a really soft spoken man but yet he can command the attention of 10-15 4 and 5 year olds without ever raising his voice. Finally TPG earned a yellow belt (it is actually a white belt with a yellow stripe running through it, they don't get real yellow belts until they move up to the next age level) The yellow belt was hard earned. Then it was on to earning the green belt. Another couple of months. Getting stripes, losing stripes, gettings stripes. In just the last few weeks TPG has really started to understand. He earned a green belt and then saw many of his classmates who were ahead of him move up to the next age and skill level. That meant TPG was the most advanced kid in the class. Pretty scary. There were tons of other kids who were acting as TPG did just a few short months ago. Well, today TPG was able to earn his blue belt. He knew it was coming and had been working on it for a few weeks. He was ready and did an amazing job today in his class. All the other kids were looking up to him. I think TPG really enjoyed that and it really helped him stay focused. He knew they were looking at him as an example and he did beautifully. Sitting in the audience watching I was just so proud. This was the first day that I had actually remembered my camera and I am so glad I did. But, the pictures just don't capture the feeling in the room. TPG was just so proud of himself and Mr. Nelson was really proud too. All the other parents were looking at me like "gee, my kid will never be that good to get a blue belt" What they don't know is that I was them must a couple of months ago. I don't know if TPG will stick with Tae Kwon Do forever but for right now, we are sticking with it. It is really nice to see that TPG CAN focus and CAN pay attention when he wants to. I am just one proud mommy. Click on the picture to go to my Flickr page for more pictures.