I did not grow up ice skating. I think I went once on a youth group outing? And it was not pretty. S grew up with an ice rink (lake) in his backyard and is fairly good at ice skating. But since it is something that I never did and didn't care to do, we never have gone together in our 13.5 years of knowing each other.
So we were both excited when we found out that Calvin does ice skating for their PE classes in January (S was excited she would start learning how to skate, I was excited that she would learn and I wouldn't have to try to teach her!). All kids are required to have skates and participate...even the kindergarteners! We got G a used pair of skates and sent her off with hopes for the best on that first day!
She came home in tears. "I fell down...like a MILLION times, momma! And I cried so hard even Mr. S (the principal) asked me what was wrong." Turns out that about 90% of her class could skate pretty well (having older brothers and sisters), and the gym teacher didn't have time to give individual help to the few that couldn't skate being that she had to keep the rest going. It would be up to us to help her. S went out and bought skates and took G out to the free rink at our park to teach her how to skate. It didn't come on the first time, obviously, so they visited that rink quite a few times in the next month.
G was mostly concerned with staying up on her feet and not falling so she didn't want to try to move her feet, so S brought out a lawn chair and had her hold on to that, which gave her enough steadiness to learn how to move her feet. And that really helped. Before she knew it, she could go around the rink without holding on to the chair! It gave her a lot more confidence with skating at school too. She never got up to the speed where she could play games with the other kids, but she could skate around the rink or back and forth and was excited to come home and tell us how few time she fell and how far she had skated. S and I were able to go and watch her a few times as they asked for parent volunteers to come help put on and tie 21 kindergarteners skates each time they were out...talk about semi-organized chaos!
I think it was a good learning experience for G. Not only just learning to do something new, but sticking with something that she wasn't very good at. Up until now, if she hasn't been good at an activity, she just wouldn't play that at all. I think she learned a lot both physically and mentally with ice skating. Who knows, we may end up with a girl who plays hockey or figure-skates (although with my lack of coordination, the genes aren't in her favor for figure skating!)!
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