Isn't Miete cute in her Karate get up. The evening that I took this picture was quite an unpleasant and stressful one for my little Miete, but she got through it and it didn't seem to have a damaging effect on her delicate self esteem. So Miete has been doing karate classes for the past 4 weeks as part of her home school's art smarts classes. The class will last 6 weeks in total. The woman who's arm is around her is the person who has been teaching karate to Miete and the small group of other Summit students. The Summit students were invited to attend a karate graduation ceremony at the karate school where she works. I took Miete to it, but she was the only child from her Home school group there. In total there was around 30 or so kids aged 8 to 10 in various levels of karate there to be tested for their next belt level.
      Miete sat with the kids and was called up with 3 other kids almost immediately to demonstrate her karate knowledge. The kids sat in a circle around the room with the judges at the front of the room and the heard of parents off to the side. I felt a bit nervous for Miete knowing how shy she can be. I went off to sit on the floor and started taking pictures and recording, while the teacher called out commands. Miete did the first few moves and then grew very stiff and still. I could see through my camera lens that her face was turning very red. The teacher then told the kids to turn and face their Parents. Miete saw me  and burst into tears, running across the room to me. I tried to comfort and console her, but it was all I could do to keep my own tears from spilling over. I felt her pain. I had experienced similar situations as a child, and we van Gogh's don't do well in stressful situations. Actually it's from my mom's side, the Homes.  Anyways one of the karate instructors came and sat down by Miete and told her how brave she was to get up there and try when she didn't know anyone there and didn't know all the positions. Miete had only had 4 classes at this point. She managed to help Miete to feel better.
       At the end of the evening, after sitting for nearly 2 hours watching all the other kids demonstrate their skills Miete received a medal. The woman in the picture with Miete called her up to the front and congratulated her for bravery, and went on to say how proud of her she was for attending and participating when no one else from her home school group had attended. Miete was beaming. She has always wanted a medal, and I think she quickly forgot about the little ordeal she went through to receive it. In hindsight I blame my emotions on PMS. Nonetheless, it is sad to see our own children suffer through unpleasant situations.

And here are some cuties:

This is a dragon Miete spent hours creating as part of her study of China.