karate

This is how far behind I am. The girls have been in karate since the beginning of November. We had been discussing an activity for a really really long time. I wasn't opposed to something like karate, but the girls had mostly talked about dance. I did want them to have confidence and have the feeling that they could take care of themselves.
Then one day I got a little ad in our mailbox. I will be happy just this once for junk mail. The other thing with getting them into an activity is that well, the thought of driving to two different classes a week exhausted me. But this ad said beginning class was from 4 to 7. Yes, Natalie was really close to 7, but then Natalie is also about as clumsy as I am :)
So we went. First I so love our Sensai, he is really wonderful with the kids. And Layla has her first teacher crush. It is very cute. But really? I see how it happened. Layla is very serious about her karate and gets called out often in class on how well she is doing. Quite an accomplishment considering she is not only the youngest she is the shortest. Natalie is also very very good. Her kicks are amazing.
They are also learning self defense techniques. I love it. We have practiced and at first I thought there was no way those things would work with someone bigger than them, but they do!! They can break my grasp. It really is great. Not only are they learning karate, they are also learning self defense and things like helping your team(including family), courage, self control. I could actually go on and on about how amazing this class is. I have pictures but they are somewhere where I can't get them right now. This is sensai's myspace, if you go down to the third from the bottom slidshow you can see the girl's class.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=277421049