Hi-ya part 2

Ok, so I went to class with Avery yesterday and I met Sensai (no clue if I am spelling this right) Jonathan, who runs the school. He was explaining the process to me as far as earning belts goes...right now she is a white belt and to get through the beginner program, she has to get up to her orange belt. He seems to think this will only take her a couple months! To progress between belts, a student has to earn three stripes, and then they can test out of that belt to move on. Avery got her first stripe right away (that is what the strange picture is of). There are 2 things that I love about this school. The first is that every single teacher is fantastic with the kids. The dojo is a little family. The second is that they are teaching behavior, along with the physical aspect of martial arts, and they involve the parents. For instance, yesterday before they gave her the first stripe, they asked me what I thought she needed to work on at home. I chose "first time listening". So when they gave her the stripe, they told her that to get the next one and to progress to her next belt she needed to work on behavior as well as her moves. Oh, the other picture is Avery standing in "front position". There is a very interesting dynamic between Avery and Sensai Jonathan and I think I need in on it. He brought her the belt and was showing me how to tie it for class and he very quietly said something to her that made her stand right in front position. I was sitting right next to them and didn't hear him-that is how quiet he said it. I asked Ave later what he said and she told me that all he said was "Front position". I need to figure out how to get her to react to me that way! So if you see her, give her props for the stripe (possibly stripes soon..she is going to be going twice a week) and ask her how "first time listening" is going. www.integritymartialarts.com