Parkour

It looks like Michael is getting a little bonus at work (woohoo!), which should be just enough to pay for braces for the two oldest boys, pay off some debt, and allow the boys to do a sport this year.  So I got the idea that parkour would be a really fun sport for the boys to learn.  (If you've never heard of parkour, look up some videos on youtube -- some of the people who do it are really amazing).  I've heard parkour referred to as "urban gymnastics," with vaulting, jumping, flipping, and rolling over or under any obstacles in their path, and scaling walls or even jumping across rooftops.  And learning it can improve balance, strength, and general fitness.  And it looks like so much fun!

So anyway, I started looking around and found that there is a parkour instructor who teaches a class at a karate studio just minutes from our house.  So I took Elijah with me on Saturday just to try out the class, meet the instructor, see the studio, and get a feel for what it's like.  (I actually thought it would be fun to take the class with Elijah, and they told me that the class is open to all ages, but for some reason there have been mostly kids coming to it lately, so I just let Lijah try it out this time).  Elijah was a little hesitant at first when he saw the boys who had been taking the class for a while doing their warm-ups, but as soon as the instruction began he had a blast for the rest of the class, and was asking right away when he could do it again.

(kind of blurry photos, but you get the picture)

Saturday classes aren't always convenient for our family, but the class instructor also offers private and group lessons, so I'm waiting to hear back more details to see if we might be able to have all our boys take a group lesson from him one weekday after school.  I'm hoping that works out, because since Saturday Lijah has been practicing and teaching it to his brothers and cousins, and they've all enjoyed it.  Today after we went to the science museum in Balboa Park we walked over to the playground for a few minutes and all the boys were trying out moves, while Lijah showed them how to do the parkour roll, and how to do some vaults.  It was pretty fun.