Skating Lessons

I've been taking figure skating lessons for a number of years.  I've been trying to convince Chris that he should also take them, but he's been resistant.  And then when we were at the skating party a couple of weeks ago, he agreed that he would be up for taking lessons.  Woo hoo!  But what do we do with Bennett if we're both on the ice? They have tot lessons, but they are meant for age 3 and up.  I had heard that sometimes they will take younger kids, so at my last lesson I asked the director if we could sign (2 year old) Bennett up.  She said we could try.  Yay!!!

The other problem is that the Tot lessons are only 25 minutes and the adult lessons are 50 minutes.  Assuming he does ok, I figure Chris and I will just take turns with who gets a short lesson.  Hopefully it won't be too bad.  So last weekend while Bennett was with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry Chris and I went out to get him (Chris) skates.  The shop I normally go to is closed on Sundays, but there was another store that has been recommended to me so we gave them a try.  Hopefully the skates will help- Chris has been convinced that part of his skating difficulties has been due to poor rental skates, which is likely partly true.

Saturday morning we tried to get Bennett psyched up about skating.  We went and checked in and then I went to get him rental skates.  This was the only hiccup in our plans.  I hadn't checked to see if they had skates in his size.  Normally Bennett is a 6.5, but 7s are ok.  The smallest they had was an 8.  We gave them a whirl.  Not sure if they impacted his abilities or not, but it's what they had so we went with it.  And seeing how his feet are constantly growing, I'm not about to buy him skates for only a month or two of use.

When it was time for the lesson to start, Bennett was very resistant to go out on the ice.  I had been holding him, and I tried passing him off at the doorway like all of the other parents.  He did NOT want to be put down.  This is where I had the advantage over the other parents since I've been skating at this rink for a number of years.  Plus I needed to talk to his teacher since they had his name wrong on the class list (he was on the list with my name).  So I just carried him on.  He still didn't want to be put down, but I handed him off to his teacher and left him as he was fussing.  I've heard other kids screaming through their whole lesson, but he must have only fussed for a minute since I didn't hear him for very long.

During my lesson I kept looking across the ice to check out how he was doing.  At this age the purpose is mostly to just get used to the ice, try to stand, and maybe do some skating.  I think most of the time Bennett was sitting on the ice.  :)  At one point I saw him standing but then fell down, or so I thought.  When his class was over and I was talking to his teacher she said that he could stand (unclear if this meant he was able to get up and stand on his own or if it meant he would stand after she helped him up) but that he chose to sit back down because it was more fun to just crawl and slide around.  She reassured me that even this was good because he was getting used to the ice, and I agree.  As long as he was having fun, that's all that matters.  Although if he learned to skate that would be awesome, because I'm not really sure how to teach those skills.)

After we got our skates off Bennett and I went to watch Daddy.  Daddy seems to have my problem of not being able to stop.  :)  He reports he only fell once, but he did crash into the boards numerous times.  I remember doing that for quite some time! 

What was interesting is that for the rest of the weekend Bennett was VERY clingy.  We had errands to run and Bennett wouldn't walk and didn't want to sit in the shopping cart.  Carrying 26+ pounds around is very tiring though!  Chris and I are wondering if this clingyness is due to "abandoning" Bennett on the ice for his class.  I hope not.