Skating.
It’s a part of life when you live in Canada. So teaching our boy to skate is important to hubby and me.
We started off using a skating aid. I cannot tell you how much we liked this aid. So many of the other ones we saw were these big bulky things that would never had fit in our car without be completely disassembled. This one folded down flat and we could take it ANYWHERE. The local park to skate on the small pad, the pond to skate on the hard frozen ice, the bigger city to skate on outdoor rink and also to local town arenas to join in the mom/tot/senior skate times. It was GREAT.
As time went on the lad learned to skate with just holding my hand. I have to admit, I LOVE skating with my lad. Even if he pulls me a bit off center (and I am NOT the world’s best skater). But we could skate together and ….
He learned how to fall. And then how to get up. First one leg up, then the other. We started with using mom as an aid, but now he can do it all on his own. He skated, but he often complained, can I stop now, do I have to do this mom? Skating isn’t fun, I don’t like it.
Most of the time we chose to just skate as a family, but this year to increase his confidence AND his love of skating (I really really wanted to foster that) we’ve decided to join in with our homeschool group at a group skate every Friday. It costs more than the free skates we’ve been doing, but… this has the HUGE added side bonus. He can skate with friends. He likes it!
Do you see the happy grin? This lad is no longer thinking…how long MUST I be on the ice. He now thinks.. do I HAVE to get off? This is fun skating with friends.
He can stop and talk with other parents and learning skating skills from them (for some reason he listens better to the Dad’s saying, hey… if you do this it works better). I don’t understand it, but I’ll certainly take it!
Play tag is so much fun, and it’s great to hear, “Your boy is skating better Annette”. It is just so good to hear. He’s really seeing that skating IS fun and not just something your folks make you do.
So should you ever be up in our neck of the woods on a fine winter’s day, come join us in skating. You’ll meet a happy lad who actually LIKES skating now. It’s just the finest thing.
I am Annette. I blog over at A Net In Time Schooling. I teach in a rather eclectic unorganized style one highly creative, imaginative child who has a good heart. I raise rabbits, read copiously, love science, adore the Lord God himself, and am happily married to a pastor husband. Life is always interesting.