Grasshopper

Andrei had his yellow belt test today. It was an awesome experience.

We had to drive all the way to Layton about 75 minutes away, but it was worth it. It was super cute to see all of the little kids doing their best karate moves, and the speech that the sensei (is that the right term?) gave was awesome.

He said that we are born with our hands empty and we die with them empty and that the only thing we get to take with us is what we learn in this life. The only thing we really leave behind are the lessons we teach to our children. He said that as parents we are responsible for teaching our children every day and building a strong foundation for them to live by. I really like how he mentioned that our children didn't have the choice to be born to us, and that we need to stop congratulating ourselves for being their parents- parenting is more than just providing for the basics of life, it is teaching and training our children to be strong, independent adults. He talked about the importance of discipline in the home and how discipline is more than just correcting our children when they do wrong- good discipline includes daily routines that will help our children learn how to be strong adults. He also talked about the importance of life long learning and stressed how all knowledge and skills that we gain can rust and deteriorate if we don't use them. It was cool.

After he spoke for about 15 minutes, the kids took the test. Andrei did pretty well, and his teacher said afterward that he has natural ability and he hopes we continue to encourage him to practice and take lessons since Andrei has a lot of potential in the martial arts.

Here are some of my fave pics from the event:

I think that watching your kids develop skills and abilities that you yourself could never dream of having is one of the best parts of parenting, don't you?