My journey in to tae kwon do began almost two years ago when my husband and I were looking for some kind of martial art to put our oldest daughter in. She was 4 at the time, and an extremely active child. Not to say that she's still NOT active, but she's mellowed a bit.
We had tried soccer with our oldest, but it was the dumbest 8 lessons we ever participated in. These kids didn't learn a single thing, and all they did was run around the soccer pitch, which I suppose is what happens in MOST preschool soccer clubs. Nonetheless, it didn't fit the bill of what were were looking for. My husband had studied Judo as a boy, and had gotten as far as his green belt, but sadly the dojo he belonged to closed quite unexpectedly one day. This has been quite a common story we have heard time and time again, but I'll save that for another post. Naturally when we were looking for a place for our daughter, we went with what he knew. The Judo dojo near our home only accepted children who were 6 years old, so that idea flew out the window fairly quick. Not to bash on Judo, but my husband was a tad concerned with any sort of future with it. Martial arts aren't as mainstream as many may like to think, plus you've got a million different subsets within the one discipline. It can be very hard to keep track of everything, as well as making sure you're taking the "right" version of that sport.
I don't recall how we found our dojang, as it's on a road we don't travel often at all. But, they had a sign that said they accept kids ages 3 and up! Perfect! Just what we were looking for. We were in contact with them, and they offer one lesson for free, so we said, OK! Our oldest had no idea what she was in for, nor did we. My husband is half Japanese, and in his naivete, he thought tae kwon do was a Japanese martial art >.< He was promptly educated when we arrived and saw the Korean flag hanging next to Old Glory. After watching a class and talking to the master and his wife, we signed up our oldest and she started class the next day.
Watching our oldest day in and day out was her little sister. As soon as she turned 3, she too signed up for "kae kwon do". She couldn't wait to get out there with her big sister. Our oldest had already been going for almost a year, so she was a number of belts higher than her sister, of course. That was just fine by us. At least we knew what the littlest had in store for her.
So where do I come in? Well when our youngest began, she would go out on the mat all alone with her big sister and their classmates. Our classes always begin the same way: Master calls time, and everyone goes to the mat with their cards, the kids line up from black belt to white, and then we kneel down to say our student creed. Once we have recited the creed we run 3 laps around the mat. This is the point where our oldest would find either a parent who was in class (usually a dad), or an older kid to hold her sister's hand while they ran laps. We were still fairly new to the dojang and barely knew anyone, so this was a little embarrassing to me. I had always wanted to take a martial arts class as a teenager, but didn't have the money or the knowledge of the different kinds of martial art to know what to take. After watching our oldest for a year, I figured I could do it too! So with some coaxing from my husband, and more apologizing (to the dads) than this Canadian has done in her WHOLE life, I joined TKD.
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