I took Avery ice skating on Saturday and we had such a wonderful time. This was only her second time on the ice. The last time I took her was a full year ago! It had been way to long. Since we've had such a mild winter, and the weather was perfect for skating yesterday, I took her to the outdoor rink that is about 15 minutes away from us, in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. They keep it open from December through February on the weekends. I'd never been there before yesterday, but we would definitely go there again. It was sunny and the temperature was right around 40 degrees which was perfect.
I had us all decked out in layers, but we both got warm pretty quick and were able to shed a few layers for most of the time. I rented Avery skates when we got there. I wasn't sure if she was a 9 or 10, because she has shoes in both sizes, so I tried a 10 first. We put them on and got on the ice, but her ankles were really turning in, and she was having trouble supporting herself. I thought it might be a boot issue, so we went back and tried the 9, and it made a huge difference! Definitely skating in the correct size makes a big difference.
At the beginning she wanted me to hold her hands and help her, but within just a few minutes I had her marching and skating on her own. She did really great and I couldn't believe what a difference she made in just 2 hours (although it helps when your mom is a former skating coach.) The rink was just a small circle, maybe 1/4-1/3 of the size of a regular rink, but that made it perfect for her to go around and set small "goals" of how far to go without falling. Even when she did fall, she quickly learned how to get back up, and every time she'd fall, we'd just yell "slip and slide" to make it fun.
We went almost as soon as the rink opened, at noon. When we arrived, it was not very crowded at all, with only about 3 small groups of people there. More people did show up as time went on, but it never became too crowded, luckily for us. Most of the people skating tended to hang on the boards, which gave us a little more room to practice. There were a few teenagers there that were so amazed that a 3 year old was skating faster than them. Within about 30 minutes, Avery wanted to skate "on her own," and she didn't want me skating side-by-side with her. She would go around and around, and even throw in a few "tricks" as she called them, like trying to march in a circle, and also trying a little bit of backward skating.
We did have to take a few snack breaks, but she skated for almost 2 hours, and would have stayed for more if I would have let her! I decided that the time is right to start her in skating lessons. I still want to work with her, but I think it would be nice for her to skate with kids her age in the group setting, and naturally there are times when she "fights" me when I'm trying to help her, and I think she would listen to a coach better than me. I don't know if she'll get as serious as I was about figure skating, but I told my husband that it's important to me that she goes through the Learn-To-Skate program so that she does learn to skate, and we can see if she wants to continue from there.
Here's a little video of her from Saturday. So proud of her!!
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