Ice Skating.
Sep. 20th, 2014 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crazychicknladyI can remember very clearly the first time I went ice skating. I was five and it was part of a school field trip. I circled the ice holding on to the wall till I figured out how to balance. I fell when I got over confident and tried to skate too fast. I had a blast.
Memory is a funny thing. I know I went ice skating more recently than that first time, but I can't remember anything about those other experiences - not even when or how often they occurred.
Yesterday I took the kids ice skating - at 13, 11, and 8 - for the first time. A place not too far from us has a special rate, once a month, for homeschoolers. We are definitely going back. It was cold, and not very crowded, and the music wasn't too loud, and I remembered how much I love ice skating. Oh, yeah, I also fell when I got over confident and tried to skate too fast.
The kids loved it. S picked up on it the quickest, but after only a few circuits around the rink holding my hand, H and C got the hang of it, too. S and H each ended up with a swollen pinkie finger from falls. By the end of the two hours of skating, S had two glorious blisters, one on each foot. I told S that she picked a good time to get all beat up - since she's taking a week off of karate to go on a trip with M and S - she should be all healed up by the time they get back. Besides a few knee bruises, C and I came through relatively unscathed.
We were supposed to be there as part of a new teen/tween group we joined this year. While I wouldn't have found the place without the e-mail announcement of the event, I don't think we saw anyone from our group there yesterday (though a couple of families said they were going). Instead, we met a friendly homeschooling Momma who seemed very excited to see other homeschoolers and gave us some pointers on where to get checked in. Also, I helped out another homeschooling Momma who was juggling skating with a three year old and a seven year old. After my kiddos were independently skating I offered to help her little girl clinging to the wall, while she continued to skate with her littler boy. The girl could have been plucked out of the 11th doctor's meeting with his first companion - when she was still a child - she even had the red hair.
I ended up skating for a very long time with the little girl. She seemed incapable (or uninterested) in learning the basics. She kept trying to dance to the music, and I kept her from falling hard at least two dozen times. I probably spent half my time skating with her. If I took a break to take a fast spin around, she would watch till I came near and push out from the wall, smile at me, and extend a hand. It was an odd contrast to how quickly my kids figured things out.
We're dragging M with us the next time his day off falls on a homeschool skate day.
Memory is a funny thing. I know I went ice skating more recently than that first time, but I can't remember anything about those other experiences - not even when or how often they occurred.
Yesterday I took the kids ice skating - at 13, 11, and 8 - for the first time. A place not too far from us has a special rate, once a month, for homeschoolers. We are definitely going back. It was cold, and not very crowded, and the music wasn't too loud, and I remembered how much I love ice skating. Oh, yeah, I also fell when I got over confident and tried to skate too fast.
The kids loved it. S picked up on it the quickest, but after only a few circuits around the rink holding my hand, H and C got the hang of it, too. S and H each ended up with a swollen pinkie finger from falls. By the end of the two hours of skating, S had two glorious blisters, one on each foot. I told S that she picked a good time to get all beat up - since she's taking a week off of karate to go on a trip with M and S - she should be all healed up by the time they get back. Besides a few knee bruises, C and I came through relatively unscathed.
We were supposed to be there as part of a new teen/tween group we joined this year. While I wouldn't have found the place without the e-mail announcement of the event, I don't think we saw anyone from our group there yesterday (though a couple of families said they were going). Instead, we met a friendly homeschooling Momma who seemed very excited to see other homeschoolers and gave us some pointers on where to get checked in. Also, I helped out another homeschooling Momma who was juggling skating with a three year old and a seven year old. After my kiddos were independently skating I offered to help her little girl clinging to the wall, while she continued to skate with her littler boy. The girl could have been plucked out of the 11th doctor's meeting with his first companion - when she was still a child - she even had the red hair.
I ended up skating for a very long time with the little girl. She seemed incapable (or uninterested) in learning the basics. She kept trying to dance to the music, and I kept her from falling hard at least two dozen times. I probably spent half my time skating with her. If I took a break to take a fast spin around, she would watch till I came near and push out from the wall, smile at me, and extend a hand. It was an odd contrast to how quickly my kids figured things out.
We're dragging M with us the next time his day off falls on a homeschool skate day.
