Reading Assignment

So in this new year as T gets himself focused to do what he needs to do in sparring and school he will be reading books that will help him on his journey and help improve his reading skills as well. This is what we are starting to read together now:

We read the introduction. Here are some of the highlights from the introduction:

“Positive thinking leads to positive outcomes.”

“Researchers have found that optimistic people live longer, have more success careers, make better decisions, are more productive, are less stressed, have healthier relationships, and (not surprisingly) are much happier than pessimists.”

“If you want to change your life, you have to first change your thinking.”

 

“Positive thinking is about responding to life’s obstacles with a positive never-back-down attitude.”

Here are some quotes from people you may know:

“Self-confidence is the first step towards success. If you believe it, you can achieve it.”  ~Tommy Lasorda

“So many players enter the game with the same approximate skills. The difference is not aptitude but attitude.”  ~Dave Winfield 

“Things have a way of working themselves out if we remain positive.”  ~Lou Holtz

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.”  ~Vince Lombardi 

Besides his bible studies T will be reading things that will keep his mind where it needs to be. Some we will read more than once because repetition is a good teacher. 

Everyday we will read a couple of chapters and that will be the routine every day as part of his schooling on top of all his other schooling. We are going to pour the positives into him and pour some more and then pour some more until it comes oozing out of him and his entire demeanor changes for the better and the way he approaches training and his ring time changes for the better. 

These are the things that athletes do over and over again in order to achieve their goals in any sport. The greats would have never been great without it!  

Training Session with Dennis White Yeaterday

Dennis White is a regional coach for our part of the USA. Our sparring team got an invite from the school that was having him come to do training. It was a fun day. I took pictures mainly so T could see his bad habits that he needs to fix as he trains with his coach. They didn’t just do physical training but Dennis also talked to them as well. Dennis White is a detail man. He wants them to fully understand the details behind what he has them do. For a kid like T that was really good. This is a transition year for T. I liked what Dennis white had to say about the 11-15 year olds. These are years where they will grow a lot not only physically but also their mental growth and toughness. A lot of learning in this sport goes on in these years. You can have a kid not have their best years during these years and when they get to their senior years be the top athlete in this sport. And many times in this sport those that dominate in those 11-15 years may not dominate when they get to be seniors. That was encouraging to hear him talk about that. It was something that gave clarification so these kids don’t lose heart as they continue to press on in this sport. The ups and downs that they go through in these years are good for them. It’s gives them experience and experience is a great teacher. They learn what works and what doesn’t.  We are looking forward to all T will learn this year in a new division. He’s nervous about this year and that’s to be expected because he doesn’t know some of the opponents he will face this year. One of the things T liked that Dennis White said was about what to do before a fight. He told them relax. Listen to music. Play a video game, which is one of T’s favorite things to do for fun...LOL! He said the worst thing you could do is either train hard, which he never does. He just warms up. Or pace and be pay too much attention to your opponents. This sport is all about the mental game and if you don’t allow yourself to get psyched out before you fight then that puts you in a better place, mentally, when you get in the ring to fight. Here are a few pictures from the training yesterday. 

T enjoyed training with this young man. He was good for T. He really challenged him and also showed T where he needs to fix some things. 

T was watching the older guys here. The younger can always learn from the older. I’m glad that they have good examples to look up to. 

I want to take a moment in this post to let you all know that we’ve been planning and crunching financial numbers for his training ahead. He will be with his coach an entire month starting on the 24th of this month. He will do a state qualifier during the time we are down there. It’s going to be busy with training, the state qualifier, and homeschooling and when Scot can get a day or two here and there from working he will be visiting us. We are hoping this month of training will give T the push he needs to get over the hump so to speak and get his bad habits broken and form new good habits that he can surprise he opponents with in the coming year😊. 

God is faithful and on our own we are unable to do what he’s gifted/called us to do while we are here on this earth. He’s gifted T in TKD. He is like a baby duck to water where TKD is concerned. It’s a natural talent that he has for the sport and he loves what he does. 

His ultimate goal is to one day have a Dojang of his own. I have no doubt that he will accomplish his goal. And by the time he’s old enough to open his own Dojang he should be close to going after his 5th Dan Black Belt if not his 6th Dan. He wants to continue with sparring first though. Kids change their minds about what they want as they grow so we’ll see if he continues to stick with wanting his own Dojang or not. So far he has. He’s even came up with a name for it. We’ll see if it’s still available to be able to network when/if he gets to that point of actually opening his own Dojang. 

DG Today

T got the rare opportunity today to go have fun with a friend, Matt, at DG (Defy Gravity). He loves the trampoline parks but he especially loves DG. Here’s a video of him having fun jumping on the really bouncy trampoline. It’s only one at a time on it. 

Cursive Writing...

So T will know how to write cursive and read cursive writing because one of the beautiful things about homeschooling is that we get to teach things that traditional education is beginning to move away from.  Some kids will never be able to read the original documents that were written in history and that saddens me when I think about it.  One of the things we would like to do as we go throughout this school year is take T to Washington DC and take him to all the museums for him to see and read some of the documents that were written in cursive writing.  He's growing up so fast and our time to really influence him is getting shorter.  We will always strive to influence him but the window we have with him at home and being able to influence him is what I'm talking about that's getting shorter.

Here's a picture of him doing his cursive writing.

 

Back To School

Getting back into the swing of school after the holidays is always difficult.  It was nice to have the break but now it's time to get down to business and do our best to get ahead in schoolwork.  The whole purpose in getting ahead is because of how busy the competition and training schedule will be moving forward.  Homeschooling is always a challenge and a balancing act.  Smooth days are rare with all we generally have to get done in a day but we push through regardless.

Decisions Decisions....

As we are getting this year started we have lots of planning to do. Some of the planning is halted because we are waiting on USAT to get their heads out of the sand and get the rules released and also waiting for State Championships and USAT Nationals to be announced so we can plan which events T will be doing for the year. AAU has been great. A total contrast from USAT. AAU already has let us all know where there Nationals is going to be and the dates. We already have AAU Qualifiers getting mapped and on schedule. 

We have other things that we are planning for as well. Once we get it all on the calendar we will need to sit down and decide what gets done and what doesn’t. As you know everything takes finances. You can want to do everything but you can’t do everything because you have to spend your finances wisely. Part of mapping out everything and getting things on schedule includes training sessions. T has such a great coach and having a great coach is not cheap so we’ve also got to map that out too along with housing for when we are in Matthews training with him. 

First up for T this year will be the AAU Qualifier on February 8th. He weighs in on the 7th. Next up will be US Open in Orlando at Disney. T weighs in on February 29th and Fights on March 1st. Before all of that will be training and more training. We are looking at T being in Matthews from January 24th until February 22nd. An entire month. We are crunching numbers and figuring out finances as I write this post because it will be training, AAU Qualifier, more training, come home, pack, and go to US Open. A lot will be having to happen in that time frame and a lot of finances needed to do it. 

God has been so faithful to us in providing every step of the way so T can go hard after his dreams. As with any athlete there are ups and downs and we’ve had to consistently be there to help our son keep his focus where it needs to be for him to accomplish his goals. He’s young and determined. We are so proud of all he’s been able to accomplish to this point. If he didn’t do anymore than he’s already done we’d still be so proud. I love that he wants to do more. We are praying and believing God for His provision for T to continue his journey and accomplish his goals.  It’s our prayer that as he accomplishes his goals that he always keeps in the forefront of his mind who gave him the gift to do what he’s doing to begin with. That he’s always thankful. That he looks to God in everything as he moves forward and does more in this sport. 

We ask that you keep us in your prayers as we plan and do all we can to help our son move forward and do more in this sport. As he moves forward to accomplish his goals. Pray for God’s provision in all this because without Him we can do nothing. He’s our provider. He’s the one who guides our steps. We give all glory and honor to Him!!!  

Tree is Down....Living Room is a Dojang Once Again!

The Christmas Tree has been put away and the living room looks like a Dojang again so that T can train at home when he's not training with his coach.  Today has been a day of looking ahead at 2020 and goal setting for the year ahead.  We've had lots of conversations with T about his desires and what it is that he wants from TaeKwonDo, especially the competitive sparring side of TaeKwonDo, to get a handle on what it is that we, as a family, need to plan for in the new year to help him accomplish his goals.  It's been good conversations of solidifying things so that we can move forward and work towards his goals.  We are always checking and rechecking to make sure of what it is that T wants from TaeKwonDo.  Kids change their minds so much on what they want that we always want to be checking in with T to make sure of his desires, wants, and goals.  As parents we always want to encourage him in his endeavors as long as they are towards a positive goal.  There are so many kids that are just doing whatever just to be doing something but they don't have any real goals in life.  We don't want T to ever be one of those statistics.  We want to make sure he sets himself up for a successful future in whatever he decides to do in this life.  We want him doing it with God guiding him all along the way.  Goal setting is important for kids but it must be done with making sure to keep a relationship with God first and foremost.  If you don't have both you don't have anything.  God + Goals (goals that God guides) = success!!!  Success not only in accomplishing your goals but success in Life!

Last year was a year of ups and downs and all athlete's have them.  T lost Grand Master Cann to cancer.  That was a big blow for him and he's been adjusting ever since.  He only knew her a short time but she made a lifetime impact on him.  He misses her everyday.

T accomplished much and he missed the mark some also.  Besides his competitions he also had a belt testing cycle and earned his 3rd Dan.  So it was a very busy year for T and it's going to be even busier in 2020.  I know he's up for what lies ahead.  He can do what he needs to do to achieve his goals.  Life is crazy at times but we wouldn't have it any other way.  God is faithful and he watches over every aspect of all we do and deal with everyday.  Things may not always happen exactly how we would like but God knows what is best for us and we just go with His Flow in our lives and keep pressing forward.  Here's a pic of T's accomplishments in 2019:

Happy New Year 🥳!!!

Happy New Year All!!!

It’s a new year with lots to look forward to. We recently found out about an opportunity for T to go to China/Korea with his traditional TaeKwonDo school in September for 11 days. Scot and I would go as well, of course, because I’m that protective momma, my kid ain’t leaving the USA without me. The entire trip will cost a little over $10,000 for all of us. It’s not a definite that we will go yet but that’s an everything included trip (plane, food, and housing). 

There’s going to be a parent meeting with the sparring team coach this Saturday. I figure there’s going to be opportunities announced at it as well. So I figure we are going to have to make some hard decisions concerning the opportunities that are presented to us in this New Year. 

T always likes to do it all but we had to have the conversation with him that we can’t always do everything. We have to pick what’s most important and do it. So as we figure out what that is we will be making more posts about the year ahead and all we are going to be having on our plate. 

New is always exciting but not always what’s best. We look to the Lord for guidance as we plan the year ahead. He is our navigator. His guidance is what’s most important to us so we will see how things unfold as we get started with 2020. We are looking forward to all the Lord will do this year in our lives😊. 

May this New Year bring unexpected blessings your way. May God be your guide in all you do. 

Yesterday at the Park

We went walking, and the boys did some running, at the Park yesterday and I got these pictures. 

T Learning “Sipjin” Poomsae

T learned his new forms for his 3rd Dan on Monday. Black Belt World teaches forms that are a belt or two above their current belt. This way by the time they actually reach Grand Master status they know all of the Forms up to 9th Dan. It’s actually a smart thought process. That way they can teach all the forms to their students if they happen to have their own school someday. Here is a couple of pictures of him and Master Amy and a video of him doing his new forms. It’s actually a 5th Dan form.