Parenting With Martial Arts: Classes for 4 and 5 year-olds
Hello parents, this is your Mount Laurel martial arts guy, Peter Liciaga. I am one of the master instructors at Dinoto karate Center in Mount Laurel New Jersey.
I want to share some helpful suggestions about our martial arts classes for parents with four to five year old children.
Let me first say that our classes for our youngest students are NOT designed to develop a highly skilled martial artist.
Instead, for this age group, we emphasize:
– Teaching them how to pay attention so they can become better learners.
– Developing better coordination so they can become more athletically inclined.
– Teaching them how to be more respectful and courteous.
– Showing them the foundational qualities of respect, cooperation and trust.
– And finally, teaching them basic martial arts techniques and principles for building confidence and mental self-defense.
For these very young students, retention of martial arts techniques is not as important as teaching them how to enjoy learning martial arts and exploring different movements, therefore stripes and belts are based on time and attitude. We emphasize the importance of consistency and adhering to a set schedule to establish good learning habits. DON’T WORRY if your kids don’t want to practice yet. It isn’t necessary as long as they are coming to class consistently.
If they DO want to practice:
– Keep practices short! Five to ten minutes is usually plenty of time for beginners.
– Reward effort! Be as encouraging as possible.
– Don’t be too picky! Slowly but surely, their technique will improve so don’t expect too much too soon. Again, our goal is to encourage your child to create good learning habits.
– Make it fun! This is the single most important factor in long-term success.
If your child doesn’t feel like going to class, don’t worry, this is not uncommon every now and then. Here are some suggestions to minimize this:
– Add their martial arts to their set schedule, just like school, and stay with it. This will simply be their routine.
– Never ask “Do you want to go to Karate?” Simply say, “It’s time to go to karate.” Remember, kids are present focused, and if they are doing something fun and you ask them if they want to go to karate, they will answer “No”. Instead, say, “It will be time to go to karate in 15 minutes, so please start to get ready.”
– If resistance to coming to class persists, which it sometimes does, please let the instructor know. Often times a little instructor/student communication can do wonders. Remember to measure your child’s feelings about whether or not they like Karate by how they feel after class.
We usually transfer our youngest students into a Junior program sometime between 6 and 6 ½ years old. It will be very apparent when it is time to move up. Our goal is not to rush them into the Junior group, but rather to make sure your child is learning and enjoying the process.
If your child is not a part of our martial arts program, Test-drive it right now at NO RISK by going to MountLaurelMartialArts.com
Until next time… have a great day!
~ Peter Liciaga
