Monkey versus Training: Ready.... FIGHT!

It is official. Yesterday, I signed Monkey up for Taekwondo for the month of May. His teacher (who shall be referred to as Sir), is a great guy, who is really good with Monkey, as well as the other kids in the class. Sir is what made the difference.

Yesterday, Monkey received his uniform and his belt. Monkey also, in his third class, spent 35 of 45 minutes sitting on the sidelines.

You see, Monkey wants to train. He wants to go to Taekwando in the worst way, and he avidly looks forward to training when he's not there. When class is over, he wants more class.  The problem? Monkey is a very... intense... child, as I told SirC, who owns the dojang. Monkey wants to do things his way, all the time, regardless of what others are doing. Of course, this is part of why he's in a martial art in the first place, but still. Monkey is also very bad at the idea of practice. He doesn't understand that he will not automatically be good at everything he tries, and that some things take practice. He also doesn't understand that the other kids are better than he is because they practice, and have been training for a long time.

Yesterday, Monkey was excited to go train. He dashed out the door to the car, looking forward to training with the kids and Sir. Then... we got to the dojang. Once there, Monkey had to be physically stopped in order to remove his shoes. Then, all three of us (this will be the last adventure of Skeeve joining us) went back to the Little Dragons class. The first thing Monkey did? He ran for the bench and sat down. Why? Because his "legs needed air. And lungs. My lungs need air, too, for my blood."  Once he finally agreed to actually take part in the training, he stood on his mark for approximately three minutes. Then he came running back to the bench. He needed air again. He was invited back to train, and he did, kicking a target twice. Then he dropped out of the line and Sir told him to sit if he wasn't going to train. Monkey sat for 90% of the remaining time, only choosing to rejoin training during the closing - the bows and thank yous.

I have no idea why this is. He isn't having any trouble breathing, yesterday was the first day he wasn't pretending to be either Black Widow or The Incredible Hulk, and he wasn't "jumping on bad guys like Mario Brothers!" so I'm at a loss as to exactly what happened here.

However, this is fairly typical for our days. Times like this is why "We are all mad here" is utterly appropriate. I had a nice conversation with SirC about Monkey, what we would like to see happen here, how Skeeve and I can best support his development with the team, and that SirC and Sir should absolutely let us know if there is anything we can do to help them help him to focus his energy and drive. However, with a child that has Intellectual, Imaginational, Sensual, and Psychomotor overexcitabilities, as well as Sensory Processing/Seeking issues and suspected ADHD (hyperactive-impulsive), I strongly suspect this will not be as easy as we have been led to believe. I am hoping, however, that we will make it through, and come out the other side all of us stronger for the challenge.