Skating Life Lessons

So my dreams of making skating our family bonding activity for the winter were fast fading away... nearly crashed and burned to be honest... Julia was HATING skating. I guess I wouldn't like it either if the other kids my size (and smaller) were zipping around me on the ice! I wish we had started her sooner... (like her sister who just turned 3 and is starting to move around okay out there! She just gets tired quickly...) We had many pep talks about how we don't quit and give up... we just need to keep trying, even when something is difficult, with practice, it will come and will even seem easy one day (ie. getting up when she fell was the first hurdle... got over that one! But still wasn't convinced that the rest would get any easier or any more fun...). So it was a fight. We took the girls for a family skate one Saturday, and she wouldn't even get ON the ice with us... GREAT! Didn't turn out to be quite the happy family time I had envisioned...


But we still held on, praying that she'd turn the corner and just "get it" one day - (how could she not skate? Her Northern parents have been in skates their entire lives!! It's unthinkable!). I prayed that this whole ordeal would turn into a nice life lesson on perseverance... I was starting to lose hope however... and then last week, it happened! She started working with a teacher one-on-one for a bit at the start of the lesson, and it made ALL the difference in the world! It boosted her confidence, she started to try more and didn't reach out for the teen helpers anymore. This past Saturday she was all too eager to go to the rink for a family skate and this time she didn't want to get off the ice, an hour and a half later! She was so excited when skating night came this week... it's been amazing to see her start to improve a lot now that she believes she can do it. Her attitude has changed, she's having fun, has more confidence and is actually starting to skate a bit!


Phew! I'm glad this has become a bit more of a positive experience... Now we can enjoy the family bonding times on the ice for family skates like I had hoped all along ;)