Look Ma! No Crates!
Yesterday, we took Buba and Tiny back to the local ice rink to try out the new ice skates Santa had brought them (as promised when our last attempt failed). The rink doesn’t have a lot of public skate times, and we’re not able to make it easily to any of them due to preschool and other activities. But T had taken the day off from work, and we decided we’d give it a try taking the kids right after preschool. If we picked up the kids exactly on time, and went straight to the rink, the kids might have about 35 minutes to skate.
However, we were late picking up the kids, and there was a lot of traffic going through town. By the time we got to the skating rink and got Tiny and Buba’s skates on, they had about 15 minutes to skate- hardly worth all the effort it took, but the kids were too excited to tell them we’d wait again for another day, so we gave it a go.
Buba is pretty fearless on his skates. He’s very focused on the ice, paying close attention to his balance, along with how he’s able to move depending on how he moves his legs. He does not want to use the crate at all, but it’s usually never too far away. The big thing this time, was that he practiced getting up on his skates without using the crate or a grown up for support. It was a ton of work, and he fell a lot, but he got it. And once he did, each subsequent try was successful fairly quickly. He was so proud of himself, and so eager to keep going even once the public skating time was over. We almost had a meltdown out there on the ice, but once he saw the Zamboni make its way out on the ice, he was willing to let me lead him over to the exit.
Tiny is still a bit more reserved on her skates. She loves using the crate, so she can go fast, but was willing to try a few steps/glides without it (probably so as not to let Buba completely steal the show). She was also able to get herself back up on her skates without any supports, but wasn’t interested in doing it again after her initial success. Which is fine. She’s happy zipping around with her crate and is lots of fun to watch.
I know that they’ll only get better with more practice, so I’m thinking we might try to make it a habit of heading right over to open skate after preschool once a week. I’ll be sure to pick them up on time (maybe even a little early), so they’ll have a good amount of time on the ice. I’m not at all interested in making figure skaters or hockey players out of them, but for now, this is a fun (and free until they turn 4) activity that gets them moving and keeps them happy.
Tiny and Buba on Ice!
I know I learned to ice skate at some point when I was a kid, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t 3 and a half when I started. However, having lived in New England now for almost 16 years, I know that our kids are going to need some fun, cold weather activities to get us through the long winter months.
It had been proposed that we put ice skates on Tiny and Buba’s Christmas lists, but before asking the grandparents to make that kind of investment, I decided that we should try out ice skating with them first. As luck would have it, our local sports center (soccer/hockey) had some open skate time today. And with T home from school (Veterans Day), it seemed like the best day to try it.
But our adventure was almost over before it began. We arrived at the ice rink only to find that the smallest skate size was a size 8 and our kids would need a size 6 or 7. However, kids under four skate for free and our guys were super, super excited to try it. So we slapped on those too-big skates and gave it a go.
Both Buba and Tiny were a little uncertain at first, but honestly, I was shocked at how quickly they were ready to be off on their own. Buba in particular, was very eager to skate all by himself with no help from anyone or anything.
Tiny was less steady at first, but quickly became the speedy one.
And Buba soon realized that he could cover more ground (and more quicky) when he was willing to use the double crate.
There were certainly a fair numbers of slips and spills, but overall, a good time was had by all.
