No School Day – Monday, Feb 5. Deforest/Windsor schools are off that day, and we’re running an all day karate camp. For the evening program, we will have regular Little Kicker class at 5:00 then Open Gym for students age 8 and up from 5:30 to 7:00 instead of regular classes. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Open Gym, this is a time for students to come in and work individually on their curriculum. There won’t be a structured lesson, but there will be Black Belt instructors available for help or questions. It’s a great time to fine tune some of the details or get some additional practice on the skills you need most. There will be no adult class that evening at 7, but adult students are welcome to come in and work on self defense techniques from 6:15 to 7:00.

Karate Camp – Monday, Feb 5. We do have some openings in our karate camp on Monday if you’re still looking for a fun activity for your child. The cost is $40 per student, and it runs from 7:30 until 4:30. If you’re interested, you can register and pay on Monday, but please email me back to let me know who will be attending.

Testing – Saturday, Feb. 17, is a test day for students promoting to Gold Stripe through Brown Stripe belts, so there will be no regular karate classes. There will be Yoga and Total Fitness classes as normal at 7 and 8 am.

Super Sunday – Sunday, Feb. 18. We will have a Super Sunday Black Belt training for Brown and Black Belts on Sunday evening, from 5:30 to 7:00.

As you all know, the flu is really bad this year. We’ve had a few cases of students with confirmed influenza diagnosis. We never take it lightly if we need to call a parent for a sick child, but given the severity of the flu this year, we’re going to be extra cautious. We feel it’s in everyone’s best interest to prevent the potential of spreading.

Additionally, we’ve become aware that our schools have confirmed quite a few cases of head lice, perhaps more than normal. Please check your kids thoroughly. While we have not had any known cases here at the studio, we want to do our best to prevent the spread of that as well.

For everyone’s protection, if your kids are showing any signs of illness or lice, please keep them home until their symptoms are completely gone. While we never want to see students miss class, coming to class healthy and ready to go is the best way to attend.

Stay healthy!

– Jeni Risgaard, Front Desk Coordinator

As some of you may know, we have unfortunately had another karate family who recently lost a family member. Mom, Leanne and junior students Bryson and Brooke McGann lost their father and we’d like to come together to help them out.

They have neighbors who have organized meals, so we’re trying to fill in some other gaps with gift cards for things like groceries and fuel. If you’d like to contribute a gift card or make a cash donation to help the family, we have a box at the front desk.

Thank you, as always. We appreciate the generous spirit of our awesome families!

– Jeni Risgaard, Front Desk Coordinator

On Monday, January 15, Deforest/Windsor has no school to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we’re running an all day karate camp.

With this, we also have an adjustment to the evening program. We will have Little Kicker class as usual beginning at 5:00, but there will be no other regular classes that evening. Instead, we’ll have open gym from 5:30 to 7:00 for any student age 8 and up.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, open gym is a time to come in and work on your curriculum requirements on your own or in small groups. There won’t be a structured class, so you’ll need to have a plan for what you’ll work on, but there will be instructors available for help when you need it.

We’ll be closing at 7:00 that night, so anyone who would normally attend the adult self defense class at 7pm is welcome to come in during open gym and work together on those concepts.

Hi MPK Families, here is a quick list of some upcoming dates and events that may be of interest…

• Karate Camp – Monday, January 15 is a no-school day for Deforest/Windsor. We’re running an all day karate camp if you’re looking for a fun activity for your child. Drop off is 7:30-8:00 and pick up is at 4:00. Kids will need to bring a lunch (peanut-free, please). The cost is $40 per child, and we’ll enroll students on a first come-first served basis. We also have camps on the no-school days on February 5 and April 16 if you’d like to sign up for those ahead of time.
• January 23 is a half day of school – just a reminder that we have no A+ After School programming that day, although evening classes will be held as usual.
• Black Belt Test – we will have a Black Belt Test on Saturday, January 20, so there will be no regular classes other than yoga and Total Fitness that day. Please come down and cheer on our testing students – they’ve put a huge amount of effort in to prepare for this big event!
• February 17 will be our next belt promotion test for students at Gold Stripe through Brown Stripe belts. If you are close to testing, be sure to get your classes and stripes in ahead of time. We will also have no regular karate classes this day, just yoga and Total Fitness.
• If you haven’t checked the lost and found recently, please take a minute to see if anything belongs to you. We’ve had quite a few winter items left behind, including coats and snow pants.