Ignite Martial Arts
#150 630 17th Street V1N 4G7 Castlegar, BC, Canada

"Earlier is not better." ~ Magda Gerber Meet the children where they are and walk their journey with them. www.IgniteMartialArts.ca

#teamworkmakesthedreamwork #childcevelopment #castlegarbc #trailbc #robsonbc #rosslandbc #genellebc #fruitvalebc #teamwork #inthistogether

May the 4th be with you!

"But HOW do you support intellectual and cognitive development?" Let start with what is phonemic awareness? Phonological awareness is to spoken language what phonics is to written language. It is the ability to recognize syllables, phonemes, rhymes, etc when no written cues are present. Phonemic awareness is the part of phonological awareness specifically related to individual sounds and how they blend together... Here's how we support intellectual and cognitive development in our drills that is based on speech therapy activities The instructor is holding a pad for the students to strike when prompted. The prompts include words that can easily be broken down. The instructor says the word, which the student repeats. Then the instructor prompts which part to remove and the student says the remaining part and strikes the pad. Instructor: "Say Chair." Student: "Chair" Instructor "But don't say Ch" Student: "Air!" ::PUNCH:: Other samples of prompts are: "Say Cupcake, but don't say Cup" "Say Coffee, but don't say EE" "Say Sailboat, but don't say Boat" "Say Winter, but don't say Ter" Children also build deeper connections with the instructors when they can prompt the instructor! Just another way we focus on child development which is much more than the kicks and punches

My family and I were recently introduced to The Invisible String by another amazing Pediatric Ninja Specialist Meg Kettell. Are you familiar with the story? One night, twins Liza and Jeremy were woken up by a terrible storm . Running to their mom for comfort, she assured them that they were safe and could go back to bed, it was just the storm making all that noise. "We want to stay close to you," said Jeremy. "We're scared!" But mom reassured them, "You know we're always... together, no matter what." How? By our Connection through the Invisible String . Now more than ever, our academy has become a safe haven for families in a world that is reeling with fear, anxiety and stress. As the trauma of the pandemic continues to affect our youth and parents, so many are left feeling alone, scared and lost in how to guide not only themselves but their children as well through these unchartered waters. Stories and illustrations can be such a positive, powerful tool for children. This is especially true for children who may be struggling with concepts like Connection; continuing to feel the flow of love and support even when there are barriers inhibiting connection as they knew it pre-COVID. In these extraordinary times when children are daily being prompted in school to mask up, socially distance from friends and loved ones who may be at higher risk, it’s important to continue shining a light on all of the strong and beautiful Invisible Strings tied securely to our children’s hearts . "As long as love is in your heart, the Invisible String will always be there." Patrice Karst, "The Invisible String"

We often get asked how we support specific areas of Child Development, so we are starting a series of "But HOW do you support ____?" Be on the lookout for HOW we support Intellectual, Cognitive, and Social Development this week and more to come in the following weeks!

Promoting good behaviour and re-directing poor behaviours will help your ninjas to: Focus on the good behaviour instead of the poor ones Have good decision-making skills Be intrinsically motivated to do great!... These strategies help leverage feel-good hormones like dopamine to help motivate our ninjas to do the right thing. When they’re praised for doing well, the reward center promotes dopamine production. When they anticipate praise or reward, dopamine levels also increase. They begin to relate these good feelings with doing the right thing and will more likely exhibit good behaviour in the future. Conversely, if they are being yelled at or reprimanded they will most likely not do it again. HoweverThey will not do it again because they fear the negative consequences. They will not do something because they don’t want to be yelled at and not because it is the right thing to do and that they shouldn’t do it because they want to be good. They can either tell themselves I don’t want to get yelled at or I want to be a good person. We want them to consider the latter.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Will Durant Success operates in the same manner as the preceding quote by Will Durant. Little success builds up to big success in a domino effect. Our Programs use skill stripes for every skill that has a chance to be earned in every class. At the end of a cycle, our ninjas test and earn their next belt. As they earn their rank in the program they feel good and motivate to learn harder materials... to keep going on their journey towards a black belt. This teaches kids to break down big goals and create small goals or milestones. They begin to build a systematic habit to reach them because it is now attainable. www.ignitemartialarts.ca #goalsetting #successfulhabits #childdevelopment #Ignitemartialarts #successfulkids #castlegar #robson #trailbc #Genelle #rossland #fruitvale

"She Has Such An Attitude!" It is effortless to let our emotions define a child. Because we are in a hurry, a child stating their desires suddenly turns into a battle of wills. We are not in the best state of mind, are focused on other things, and before we even realize it, those words slip out...... "Why are you so difficult?" We have just told that child what we think of them. But if we step back, take a breath, and examine WHY a child is presenting a certain behaviour, we can often see hidden strengths that simply need to be nurtured in ways that will help them keep their power while perhaps finding a better way to express it. We call this mindset shift the "Strength Switch." Her attitude is not willful disobedience or defiance; it is strength, expression, determination, passion, or any one of many other traits that we can associate with leadership or success. Our goal should not be to break these character traits, but to teach children how to harness them... and to teach ourselves how to slow down so we can see just how incredible our kids are, even when the world is screaming at us to hurry. www.Ignitemartialarts.ca #Parenting #Attitude #Integrity #Confidence #ChildDevelopment #ChildDevelopmentCenter #GotSkillz #Skillz #GirlPower #Assertiveness #castlegar #trailbc #robsonbc #rossland #fruitvale #Genelle

"Play is essential to overall development and learning." ~John Salama Dictionary.com defines play as "to exercise or employ oneself in diversion, amusement, or recreation; to do something in sport that is not to be taken seriously." As Certified Pediatric Specialists, the Ignite team knows that play is NOT something to be done in downtime; it is NOT the opposite of work.... To a child, especially our younger students, play is how they seek to understand the world. In-play and game-based learning models, such as those utilized in the Skillz curriculum, kids are engaged physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. They not only hear us speak about the lessons, but they are allowed to experiment, to imagine, and to explore. In fact, we believe that the truest test of whether a child is learning is whether we can see the lessons coming through in their unstructured free play. It is during these most creative times that children experience the most discovery. www.IgniteMartailArts.ca #PlayBasedLearning #GameBasedLearning #Play #Teaching #Parenting #GotSkillz #PediatricNinjaSpecialist #robson #ignitemartialarts #castlegar #trailbc #Genelle #fruitvale #rossland

We know how important it is to positively reinforce our children's behaviours and accomplishments! It is equally important for us to feel the joy of our children's accomplishments and the understanding of how far they have come in a year, many times we don't notice these changes because they are small incremental changes over time but our children are always learning and growing and this is a HUGE accomplishment that we need to celebrate!

From all our families to yours, have a Merry Christmas!

During the early years of Child Development (18 to 48 months), the body is primarily focused on growth, and these children can see the growth of 1/2 to 1 inch per month on average during this time. By age 4, their average language is 250 to 500 words; however, as they transition through 5-6, we see exponential growth in their intelligence, growing to upwards of 25000 words! This means their brains are turning at a million miles a minute, and when we ask them to do something u...sing a long, complex string of words, their brains catch only a few of those requests and then execute. This is why if you ask your 5-6-year-old to go get the garbage from the upstairs bathroom, the downstairs bathroom, the kitchen and take it outside to the trash, you will normally find they only took out the kitchen garbage; this is because their brain executed the last part of "take out the kitchen garbage to the trash". Sometimes we feel they just are not listening but in fact, they are it is just that their brains are working on processing so much information and working to understanding the context of all of it that their working memory runs out of space and then forgets the first part of what we asked. Remember this next time you are getting your children to do their chores and feeling frustrated that they are not listening, break it up into one task at a time and ensure you are connecting and encouraging them through the tasks. Sometimes we feel they just are not listening, but in fact, they are. It is just that their brains are working on processing so much information and working to understanding the context of all of it that their working memory runs out of space and then forgets the first part of what we asked.

Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?! Are you #teameve or #teamday...let us know below

Hold on tight, someone flipped the gravity!! #cartwheelsfordays #ignitemartialarts

Using the 2020 Armor in a tug of war!

Falling asleep or entering zen mode? This ninja looks a little concerned! #workhardplayharder #ignitemartialarts

I am STRONG! I am POWERFUL! I am definitely going to knock Instructor AJ over with this kick!! #gotskillz #ignitemartialarts

Everybody Loves PIES! When educating children, it is essential to consider the ENTIRE child. People often ask us what strictly a SKILLZ Child Development Center is. And that is one of our favourite questions!... If your child has a physical challenge, they might visit a physical therapist or occupational therapist to help them return to or achieve a state of healthy function and ability. But who takes them from a state of physical health to a state of success? That's what we do! If your child has intellectual or educational challenges, they might visit a tutor or even our friends at Huntington Learning Center to help them get a head start on learning. But who teaches them HOW to learn and gives them the neurological development tools to help them achieve cognitive growth? That's what we do! If your child has an emotional challenge, they might visit a social worker or a therapist to help them establish healthier emotional levels and a more positive mindset. But who takes them from a position of stability to a lifestyle of success? That's what we do! Suppose your child struggles socially and has difficulty making friends. In that case, you might bring them to a counsellor or behaviourist to help them work through their fears and anxiety while enhancing their social cues awareness. But who takes them from fundamental inclusion to a role of leadership? That's what we do! Our goal is never to replace the therapeutic relationship your child has with their caregivers. Our goal is to enhance those efforts and provide kids with an unfair developmental advantage regardless of their starting point. SKILLZ Child Development programs use the symbolism of martial arts to connect with kids in an age-specific learning environment. We use this symbolic vehicle to help kids become the best possible versions of themselves physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially! #ChildDevelopment #PhysicalDevelopment #IntellectualDevelopment #EmotionalDevelopment #SocialDevelopment #GotSkillz #wholechild #WholeChildEducation #PIES #IgniteMartialArts #Castelgar #Trail #Rossland #Robson #Genelle #Fruitvale

What's up Monday!

Quick get in your listening postion class is about to start! What are you doing? #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #ignitemartialarts

Staring contest ready, set, go! This ninja has better focus than some adults!! #myninjasarethebest #ignitemartialarts

Who needs arms for ARMY crawls, not this super ninja! #ourninjasrock #ignitemartialarts

As many of you may be aware the BC Government has indicated that indoor sports programs like dance, gymnastics, and martial arts are to be temporarily suspended till they develop guidelines around the safe operation of these programs. For those of you in our Programs you know they are so much more than "Martial Arts" in fact Martial Arts is only the method we use for delivery of our "Child Development" programs. Our Child Development Programs focus on the Physical, Intellect...ual, Emotional and Social age-specific stages of development in Children Ages 3+. We only utilize Martial arts as our way of delivering our programs to immerse and engage children in learning and development. This is also why we require all students to undergo an evaluation and consultation prior to entering any of our programs. To simply state we are "Martial Arts" would be truly not understanding children, their developmental milestones, and their need for learning. Our Child Development Programs are still running as well as our Zoom offerings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday. Unfortunately, our Adult Martial Arts programs are temporarily suspended. #childdevelopment #gotskillz #IgniteMartialArts #covidstrong #castlegar #rossland #trail #robson #PIES #PhysicalDevelopment #Intellectualevelopment #EomtionalDevelopment #SocialDevelopment

The ball has barely left his hand and he is nearly crushing that board! What speed!! #myninjasgohard #ignitemartialarts

Hey Parents, Many parents enlist Elf on the Shelf to remind our kids that he/she’s keeping tabs on them and letting Santa know if they should be on the ‘naughty’ or ‘nice’ list However, this concept doesn’t align with our theories for child development at Ignite Martial Arts as we believe threats, coercion, and punishments do more harm for behaviour modifications, particularly during COVID. ... With that said, we’ve put together a cool concept to help utilize Elf on the Shelf as another support tool just like our SKILLZ instructors! Here’s how it works: 1. There are 8 Elf SKILLZ. 2. Each night, have the Elf leave a challenge or message alternating through one skill, in order. 3. Rotate through each one 3 times equals 24 days of Elf SKILLZ starting December 1st. 4. For even more fun and better results, the child can earn 5 points each day they complete the challenge and then the Elf will leave a small gift once they receive 20 points. Gifts can include candy, money, art supplies, etc. Here are the SKILLZ: 1. Manners 2. Kindness 3. Bravery 4. Creativity 5. Self-Control 6. Loving 7. Healthiness 8. Cooperation Click here for sample text you can print out as a note from the Elf on the first night: https://bit.ly/ELFSKILLZLetter Click here for a sample challenge targeting a 5 & 6-year old: https://bit.ly/ELFSKILLZManners1 I hope the ELF SKILLZ inspires you to use this concept in a more positive and productive manner! Best Regards, Ignite Martial Arts

If that's not the sturdiest plank I have ever seen! Get some nails and a hammer, it's time to build a house! #gotskillz #ignitemartialarts

Didn't you hear?! The new belt cycle starts today!! #ignitemartialarts

What's Up Monday!