My dad taught me how to ice skate on the pond at Turkey Hill Dairy (the place that makes that awesome ice tea that I'm always craving!). My grandparents and the family that own(ed) the dairy were the closest of friends so I got spend a lot of time there as a kid. My dad and some of his buddies from church use to go skate there, play hockey, etc. so I got to tag along. When I was older, we use to skate at the pond at Millersville University, which was just a few blocks down the street from our house. I don't think I skated on an indoor rink until high school! I loved pond skating and feel badly that my kids won't get that experience.
Riley has a school field trip next week to the ice rink...I figured I had better take him so that at least he's familiar with skates and how to get up when he falls if nothing else. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with him because he's not as naturally coordinated as Kendall, but has done really well with ski school this year. He fell in LOVE with ice skating. I decided not to give too much instruction and just let him explore and find his way. He improved so much in the short 2 hours we were there! He started out looking a lot like Bambi, and was clinging to me for dear life, but once he got the hang of it, there was no more holding mom's hand...he was on his own. He fell...a lot...but that didn't discourage him one bit. He'd just hop back up and keep going. I only gave him two bits of advice - to keep his belly button over his feet and to push off and glide on the ice instead of walking...He gained so much confidence and had so much fun. Here's the evidence of our success:
He kept asking me when we could go again and if we could bring Kendall...She was so distraught that I wouldn't take both of them yesterday, but now that Riley knows what he's doing well enough on his own, I feel more comfortable taking both of them by myself. Maybe another trip is in order before the month is out.
2 comments:
He's doing really well!
Thanks Jean!
Post a Comment