Hello Jeff Andle:

I am a "farmer"... I plant "seeds", nurture them, provide experiences in a very precise & specific order (ie not haphazard) to grow something meaningful, positive that we hope will take root.

Its a wonderrful thing when parents borrow, play off of us... do not mind borrowing off of them either.

Jeff
[Someone reading our posts is gonna get confused... too many Jeff's in one posting !!!]

Let me get Geoff over on this thread so it won't look like we're talking to ourself!

"Planting seeds for the future" [shim jen]

Thanks everyone for all the input...splitting the class into separate age group is a good idea!!

Tell them to come back when they are 11 or 12. Very few kids aged 5 to 9 have enough focus or discipline to make it through a serious martial arts class.

Parents think that having their kids start training early will turn them into superb martial artists. It won't. Programs that successfully teach very young students--think about athletics programs in China or the former USSR--have two things in common:

1) The kids are carfully screeened. None but the best of the best are allowed to train.

2) The kids receive intensive, one-on-one individual attention for many hours every day.

Neither of these two conditions pertain in most MA schhools. Filling a school with near-toddlers just turns it into a de facto baby sitting service.

DOjisan:

There is one other approach that has worked well in the past at times. Consider, kids being kids EVERY adult tells them to alter their particular (sic disruptive) behavior(s).

Consider giving them an bonefide incentive... if they respond (ie listening) to a "trigger word" in the manner you suggest, YOU will do... "X" be that push ups, or punches, or some type or kind of thing.

They're LISTENING, and responding per your instructions gets them a reward specifically or gets YOU to do something you might ask them to do if they were being disruptive.

Has worked in the recent past... and many simply joined us doing said punches, pushups because they simply LOVE to copy the grownups, whatever we are doing.

Another thought...
Jeff

Hello Flyboy2002:

I won't debate your basic points (highly choosen, and filtered students) as I believe them to be essentially correct, however respectfully I adamently disagree with your general conclusion...

I teach children/adults for my living. It is not baby sitting for 95% of them, and for those it is they leave, hating to actually work.

You (generic) cannot present information in the adult manner to children, because they are NOT adults. Once teens perhaps then even so, they do not have the mental processes, nor life experience to honestly understand what they have truly signed up for.

Everyone only gets small pieces of the picture, even adults. Time is required to engrain concepts, ideals. Myself I do not want children learning to be ~little adults~ automatons <sp.?>. Being kids works just fine.

If what they learn from us sticks with them, and they stay wonderful, if it does not we've done out job if they recall their time fondly and as being good learning.

Merely my opinion, I could surely be mistaken,
Jeff

I think your opinion is correct. Just for the record, I am not a fan of the old Soviet athletics regime. I just think that 11 or 12 is a more appropriate age to begin MA training than 6 or 7. The Chicago Park Disrict's boxing program does not allow anyone youngert than 10 to box, for many of the reasons I cited.

Dojisan:

What ever happened with you class last spring, or possibly the newest one this fall <ggg>?

Jeff

Most of them are still with me and they are doing great. Since then I've enrolled 35 more, now that I have my own school. I learned to mixed it up a bit, being stern at times but not too military and relaxed at other times, using fun games as drills to teach the lesson of the day. First thing was to tell the parents NO SUGAR one to two hours before class, like candies-softdrinks-cakes-ice cream . Second is I've acquired a few assistant instructors from my junior class (helping me teach class is one requirement for them to advance in belt). So if a particular tiny tiger acts up in class, i have my assistant to stand next to him/her and guide him/her as the class goes along. If that particular student keeps acting up where he/she interrupts the class, the assistant instructor will take him/her aside and teach the lesson 1 on 1 until he she calms down. This situation rarely happens now. Like you said, kids will be kids and you can't teach them like adults. So I learned to teach the lessons in a fun yet disciplined way and at the end of class I make them repeat what they learned .

Oh yeah, a reward system helps alot and avoid using negative words! Praise-correct-praise is my formula for correcting a technique

I agree .