Well, with only one lesson under her belt, we were amazed at how much better Simone was on the ice today. And by better, I mean she was vertical for nearly all of the lesson (as opposed to on the ground!). She only fell down four times the entire lesson (last week I lost count after 5 minutes). It was amazing how much more confident and balanced she was already.
Simone made it back and forth across the rink, forwards and backwards many times without falling.
They worked on some bending down while gliding....
Today they also introduced the backward wiggle. I thought it was hilarious watching the whole line of little ones shake it like a polaroid picture!!
And finally, I found this shot on my phone from a few weeks ago when we went to get her new skates fitted and sharpened. She was over the moon happy!
Simone's really enjoying these lessons and I have to admit, it's pretty fun watching her. It's a great way to get the family up and going on these cold winter Saturdays!
So, holidays are over and we are back into full swing for 2015. Our first week brought us a winter storm, two days of school closings, and a delay on top of our regular schedule of work, school and activities. This weekend was equally busy with taking down Christmas decorations, having playdates, and watching movies. But the highlight of the whole week was Simone's very first ice skating lesson on Saturday. She has been excitedly waiting for this since Christmas, and despite the fact that she spent far more time on her bottom than actually skating, she really loved it. She can't wait to go back next week.
The whole event was probably much harder on mommy and daddy than it was on Simone. After a very short tutorial on how to fall without hurting yourself, they threw them right onto the ice with a complete "sink or swim" philosophy. Here's Simone holding onto the wall for dear life, but she was totally brave and didn't stay there long.
I won't lie, watching her fall over and over and over again, hurt my heart(and my stomach), but she didn't mind a bit and didn't suffer even one bruise. I kept trying to convince myself that she's much closer to the ground than I am, so it didn't hurt as much. I can tell this is gonna take lots of practice, but we saw her balance and confidence gradually improve even in the span of 30 minutes.
Really not too bad when you think that she'd never even stepped foot onto the ice until 10 minutes earlier.
The still shots are great -- they make it look like she can already skate! lol!
By half way through, she was even confident enough to try to wave at mommy and daddy.
I was really surprised to see them start teaching the forward swizzle to kids who could barely even hold themselves up. I guess there's no point in waiting.
And by the end of the lesson, Simone could ALMOST keep herself up skating back across the ice. I love the boy in the dark blue coat, who decided it might be easier to just crawl back off the ice LOL!!!
We were so proud of our little girl for hanging tough through the whole lesson. She's eagerly awaiting the next session, and I suspect we'll be spending some extra time at the rink between lessons!
