The Blue Stripe

So Faedon has been taking Tae Kwon Do twice a week for the past 2 months, and seems to really enjoy it. But this week was an especially big week for him because he earned one of his coveted BLUE STRIPES.

What's a blue stripe?

Well, every time Faedon takes a class he gets a tape stripe on his belt. And he can pick any color he wants....except for Blue. but in order to move up to the next belt level (yellow) he not only needs to be able to perform the appropriate moves, but he also needs to have 2 blue stripes on his belt.

So how does he get them if he can't pick them?

Well, this is one of the things we love about his Tae Kwon Do Master. The blue stripes are considered "Respect" stripes. And they have to be earned at home. Different parent have different ways of deciding when their little ninja has earned a blue stripe - but we chose to take a very structured task-based approach. IN other words, we chose a task that we wanted Faedon to master and once he mastered it, he earned his stripe. That, of course, as well as he has to be respectful and polite at all times. But that's just a given.

So for this stripe, his task was to learn how to hang his clothes on a hanger...something he has been struggling with for quite a while. And it was a bit tough at first - especially with slippery things like jackets. But he practiced and practiced - even hanging up anything of Kellyn's he found on the floor - and he became an expert clothes hanger-upper! And he was able to earn his prized blue stripe. Very exciting!

One more blue stripe to go before he can get his yellow belt. We haven't decided what the task is going to be for this belt, but we are certainly loving the incentive it's giving him to master new things!