Alex has only recently started and he already got the yellow band. To get yellow he needed to learn a few taek wondo routines and execute them without any mistake during his exams. The exact movements are a mistery to me, so we could not help Alex, and still it all went perfect. *super proud*
Alan is only two years, but he is developing very fast. A big role in his development is of course his big brother Alex who functions as a perfect example for lots of things. Still, there is room for surprises, like the event that happened yesterday. Alan is developing his skills to influence. The great and subtle art of preparing the now with small little details so that a desired future will be more likely. For a two year old a great achievement, in fact even with an older kid I would be impressed.
What Alan had done was the following. He saved one of his candies and placed it secretly on my desk, next to the bed, so I found if right before going to sleep. In the early morning Alan came to check on the candy and when he found it still in its place he even offered to put it in my mouth. I sure wonder what he was hoping to achieve.
The Cola Cola Mentos experiment is quite simple. Throw a couple of mentos in a bottle of Coca Cola and a huge fountain of cola will be the result. At least in theory. To Alex I had to explain that this experiment would be impossible to do inside the house. Everything would be covered in cola. This one needed to be done outside.
The somewhat disappointing result can be seen in the video below.
Sport is not only fun, it is also very healthy. Alex goes to taek wondo twice a week, and these classes are basically running, jumping, doing obstacle courses and every now and then also kicking and hitting an imaginary enemy.
His taek wondo teacher is a nice man who has quite a bit of authority (great for getting all the kids in the class to behave). He knows very well how make all those kids behave and we can really see the discipline in all those kids. Sometimes the teacher gives a compliment, and you can almost see the complimented kid grow a little. Bad behavior results in a punishment of a couple of pushups or sitting on the side for a while without participating in the current game. Simple and effective.
After a little getting used to Alex is going really great. So good that after a couple of month he already had the basic 20 taek wondo moves down, and this is enough for a promotion to the white-yellow band!
*Proud*
I feel like I don’t have much to tell the world, but thinking about this issue made me realize that is not really true. I did move from Holland to Spain to a new environment and basically a new life. This made my own personal insights a lot more valuable. My life lessons could and should be shared with the world, so we can all get (a little bit) better. Sadly I don’t really feel like sharing, I feel the content I can provide will not be up to the task, and I think/feel there would be a very limited interest, so I’ll pass.
On the other hand there is something in my life that is even more exciting. My sons Alex and Alan also live in two worlds. Dutch and Spanish influences that help shape their realities and their vision of the world around them. The views these two boys have of the world is not contaminated by prejudice, assumptions, fear and diplomacy. Their view is still youthfully naive and full of hope, trust and faith. This is much more interesting and represents the real value. Even if the actual content does not mean so much these are the raisins in the cake.
Coincidentally I have been making small movie clips of our kids since their births, so all the need is a little tweaking. We need to add an intro, and at the and a nice “See you next time!”, and they will have a super interesting vlog. Lets just give it a try.
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Alan is growing very very fast. Not only his physical size, but also mentally there is a lot of progression. Partly because he is being stimulated almost full-time, but also because he is a very smart little guy. He understands almost everything he is asked, and it does not matter if you ask him things in Dutch or Spanish. He also asks things himself using a limited set of vocabulary in both Dutch and Spanish.
This birthday was celebrated with a big party, and Alan quickly understood that it was all about him. The was clearly very pleased with all the gifts. Up to the next year!
Once more Alex has earned a medal, and again at a running match. He likes to run and it helps that there are a lot of runs especially for kids where everybody gets a medal.
More then a year ago we went to a tryout of Taekwondo with little Alex. The gym was very close by so it could have been perfect, but sadly Alex didn’t like it one bit. If fact after the first time just looking it was difficult to get his inside the building without protest.
Now, more than a year later the tables have turned. This time it was Alex who requested that we take him on a test class a the same Taekwondo gym we went last time. We were quite amazed by this turnaround, and we suspect it is because Alex’ friend Miguel also goes to Taekwondo and he already earned his yellow-white belt. Miguel was so positive about this sport that he somehow convinced Alex to give it a try. What could be better than a couple of hours of sports and discipline each week.