Kung Foo Fighting

So Little Smoot has yet another new interest that she'd like to take up. It's not like she doesn't have any other current activities. She is presently involved with Girl Scouts, softball, trumpet, piano lessons, our church's adult hand bell choir, various other church activities, and a neighbor of ours has been teaching her to knit.

One would think all of that (and whatever other activities I forgot in that list) would be enough to keep a 10-year-old plenty occupied, on top of her regular school work.

I came home the other night and learned that now she wants to take Karate lessons. Actually, I guess it's "Tang Soo Do," which may or may not be a form of Karate. I really have no idea. I don't think it has much of anything to do with drinking Tang, but I could be wrong about that, too.

In any case, I never in a million years would have guessed that she'd want to learn martial arts. I would have been less surprised if she had declared that she was interested in wrestling sharks, or learning to play the nose harp.

Our pastor's family takes lessons at this place in town, and Little Smoot thought it was cool when she saw them demonstrating it during the Food on a Stick Festival this past weekend. She tried her hand at it, and seemed to pick it up pretty naturally. Or at least that's what we were told by the people who want to charge us a monthly fee for her membership.

So it looks like we're giving this a try. I took her down the other night for a free introductory lesson, and another lesson last night, and she seemed to do well with it. She even spent the rest of the night studying the materials they supplied her.

At first I was thinking about the downfalls of having a 10-year-old who will soon be able to Kung Foo chop the crap out of me, but then again with her newfound quasi-interest in boys, a few defensive moves might not be a bad idea.