Little Ninja

Saturday mornings for the past few months, Bastien has been taking a karate class called Little Ninjas at a place called Creative Seeds. I went to the first few classes, then Jason took over. Once he went out of town, I had the pleasure of seeing the progress Bastien has made. It's pretty awesome. I love this class because it teaches three import things: "Focus, Discipline...

...Respect."

Right now, the class is small. There are 2 other boys and 1 girl. The teacher, Master Torres of Crescent Moon Karate, is great with the kids. He teaches with a good balance of seriousness and fun. And they actually talk about what these words really mean. The other great thing is they get to yell and kick and punch and jump.

There are surely not enough opportunities for city kids to do these things unfettered. (That's why I like the Santa Anita Racetrack but that's another post).

I finally bought Bastien a little gi. The arms are way too long and the pants are a bit long too, but he looks so cute in it. Notice the camouflage belt. He has earned a white tip and a yellow tip so far. They earn these tips by learning things like their phone number, parents' names, address, etc. (in addition to the karate moves).

Driving up Highland the other day, I saw two boys in their gis standing in the front yard. They were probably 10-12 yrs old. I'm guessing they were either on their way to or from a karate class. They saw me looking at them and I smiled. I'm sure they thought I was a weirdo. But, I was smiling to think maybe that would be Bastien and Isabella 8 years from now. I'd like that.