Currently my 8 year old son does taekwondo, he's been doing it for a few months and has recently got his "orange stripe" belt.
I've never really been impressed with the classes, they always start 10 minutes late and since the class is only 1 hour long this means that they only get 50 minutes a week training, 20 minutes of this is taken up by warming up so all in all they get around 25 minutes a week doing actual taekwondo. The whole thing is very sloppy and disorganised and for this we pay £18 a month by direct debit for one class a week meaning we still have to pay even if he doesn't go, if he was to go 3 times a week it would cost us £40 a month which I could never afford so he's stuck with the 25 minutes or so he gets on a saturday where they only do the basics, no sparring etc.
My youngest son has expressed an interest in starting martial arts but I am reluctant to send him to this taekwondo class when I know he could do karate 3 times a week in proper, organised classes for half the price so I have decided to join a karate class with him after christmas, my eldest however is still stuck in his once a week 50 minute taekwondo class which will cost us the same as both mine and my youngest karate training fee's put together...my question is, should I take eldest out of the taekwondo class and get him to join karate with us where he would be able to train 3 times a week in much better classes?
I'm reluctant as I paid a lot of money out for his taekwondo suit (different to a karate suit) and he's just got his first belt but on the other side the belt is only a 'half grade' as apparantly they only do half grades for kids to make it easier for them to pass so it probably isnt even nationally recognised and the certificate he was supposed to get with it is still coming a month later.
He doesnt really want to leave the taekwondo class so I feel a bit guilty but resent paying out so much money for a class that isnt really that good.
What should i do?