I have a five-year-old son who recently decided he wanted to take up the art of karate. Well, as you can guess, I was thrilled that he wanted to get involved with something that would teach him so much for the life that lies before him. Little did I know that I too, would have to become an expert in the ways of karate fashion!



We went through all the steps to get him signed up and get his karate gi. Now all there was to do was await the big day when he was to start his class. He ran around the house with his ?Sponge Bob? karate gloves on, chopping into everything he could get his little hands on. With his enthusiasm, he soon had the whole family getting into the spirit of things and we all were getting anxious for the classes to start.

Well, as the big day neared, he took to wearing his gi both day and night. He was not very good at tying knots so this quickly became a dilemma. He would put on his uniform to fight the evildoers in the house and I was expected to quickly tie the belt on his uniform. Then, when he would switch back to his own personality, he again would want a Quick Draw McGraw change of the gi. I, of course, obliged.

Well, this went on right up until the big day. When the day arrived that he was to go to his first karate class, we all took much pride in getting him ready for his first lesson. I helped him get dressed, all the way down to tying the white belt around his little waist. I tied a good strong knot to keep it on his torso and off we went.

When we arrived, he walked proudly into the room only to have some of the other students snicker at him. I looked around to see what was wrong and why they would be doing that. Apparently, to my surprise, I had tied his karate belt completely wrong and it looked as if he had a huge lump in his tummy.

It didn't matter to him, he stood there in all his glory, proud as can be.

One of the other kids dads gave a quick lesson on how to tie the belt and I immediately called him over to fix the problem. I was just a bit too late as when he turned to look at me while jumping in the air, teh top half of his gi came apart and just about fell off of him due to my awful knot. I got him over to me as quick as possible and fixed it so he was none the wiser. I learned that the belt should sit just above the hip bones, for if it is in any way different, it will untie and fall off. The ends of the belt need to be of equal lengths to make sure that it doesn't interfere with your body parts getting caught in it and you should make sure that the belt doesn't cross itself at the back.

He loves his karate classes. I love my wrestling, jujitsu and kickboxing classes. As a family, we have it covered!