Ice skating!
This year we got more into ice skating, or rather Josie and Celia have, I’m sidelined with my sprained ankle and other physical issues currently. We’d take them to free skate and Josie would hang on Jordi or my dad and Celia would get the other one and they’d have aching backs by the end. But hanging out at the rink you can clearly see that other kids Josie’s size could skate by themselves and Josie’s a pretty physically capable girl so we decided this was a mental ‘hanging on’ thing. Here’s a pic of her hanging onto the wall for a rare time she let go of someone.
Right after this photo, I said ‘get off the wall!’ and she did, she actually skated herself for a few moments, but that was it. She had gotten her new ice skates for Hanukkah this year and they were fitting nicely. I looked around online and found a short set of 3 skating lessons to get Josie a quick start lesson. She was interested and agreed to them but the first class was later in the day after we had already gone skating in the morning. And of course in real ice skating classes, no one is there holding your hands, there’s only one teacher and a bunch of kids. But out she went, falling and falling, and falling again. I could see how upset she was and halfway through she came out for a hug before she went back in for more. It was a rough class and she was really really tired. She did not want to go back again, but by the end of the class they had her skate the whole width of the rink without falling even once! We had french fries afterwards to cheer her success.
The following weekend we did free skate the day before the lesson. She was able to only hold on with one hand to her helpers and even took off skating by herself at times. She was again dreading the class, but I made her go. She picked up more skills, had fewer falls and gained more confidence.
The last class she also didn’t want it to be Sunday again. This class she fell maybe 4 times total, and didn’t fall even when other kids who had fallen ran into her. She was going forwards, starting to glide and even made the effort to go backwards. After class we again had some french fries and she told me she wanted to go to one more class. Sadly the session was now over and the other sessions are 9 weeks long. This is the first class we’ve ever done on the weekend and we found it tough on the routine as it took over the whole afternoon, so we won’t be back for lessons, but she should be zipping around the local rink now that she can go on her own! It was a big challenge but she really rose to the occasion.
Celia also joined us for the free skates and she is determined to get moving on her own. She’ll let go and try it herself and isn’t too bothered by falling down, even though she refuses to wear mittens. She had been using rentals, and still wanted to be carried some of the time, so I bought her some double runners that attach to her boots and she loved those. She could walk across the ice, balance by herself, and be out there with the big people in general. She likes watching the silly flirty teenagers. I also picked up a pair of used real skates for her which she hasn’t tried out yet, but they’ll fit this year and next so we’ll see what she thinks of them.
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