We arrived at the rink at 3:25 for our 3:30 lesson. Little did I know there would be a zillion people and a HUGE line to rent skates. By the time I got the skates and helped tie 6 little skates, our half hour lesson was just about to end. The kids wobbled out to the ice and found their teachers. Matthew was very leary of the whole idea after his bad experience last year. Hyrum had NO fear. He wanted on the ice and didn't care if he was going to fall. I was a bit bummed that Hyrum and Matt are in the same class (for 2-5 year-olds) and that there were 15 of them. Sorry but with that many little kids, especially the 2 and 3 year-olds that pretty much need one adult to themselves, that is way too many kids unless they had 6 or 8 teachers. The poor teacher looked flustered and finally took them off the ice and had them practice falling on the rubber mat and getting up again. The phrase "what have I done" ran through my mind over and over again. Then they went out on the ice for about 5 minutes, falling and waiting for the teacher to come help them up. For some reason I was under the impression that for the little tiny kids, they would have something like a bucket to push and help balance, but they didn't.
Luckily, Matthew caught on to how to get up by himself, so he actually had a good experience and wanted to skate the rest of the free skate time. Some poor instructor took pity on Hyrum (probably because he's so cute and was so determined to be on the ice) and tried to help him skate and learn how to get up. He took a hard land right on the behind but after a minute of crying still wanted back on the ice. After 15 more minutes though, he had fallen down and just kept laying there so the instructor brought him to me. He insisted he wasn't done skating, but I took him off as they only had five minutes left. Matthew and Kennedy stayed the entire time for free skate (which surprised me because Kennedy was upset that her skates didn't fit right and kept turning in). Anyway, what started out as disaster turned out to be pretty good. All the kids are looking forward to ice skating on Thursday.
Day 2: I wish I could say that Day 2 was fun....it was NOT. Hyrum did not have a nap that day which did NOT help, but when they said they'd be splitting his class, I assumed they would put the tiny kids in one class and the older in the other. No. They said that they would have a lesson at 3:30 and then one at 4:00 and asked people to switch to the 4:00. That meant that your kid could free skate from 3:30 to 4:00 and then have a lesson from 4:00 to 4:30. I decided to switch since no one else would, but I voiced my concern that Hyrum wouldn't free skate without a teacher. She told me I could get on the ice with him as long as I had ice skates on. Basically, Hyrum wouldn't get on the ice, big surprise, I ended up renting skates and trying to hold Hyrum up on the ice as he wouldn't do anything. My arms and back are sore today...he is a big kid!!! By the time the teacher was ready for his lesson, he only wanted me, so we ended up out in the lobby waiting for Matt and Kennedy to finish. I'm pretty annoyed that they suggested such small children sign up, but they have NO way of accomadating them. Even if Hyrum gets on the ice, he basically needs an adult to himself (as you can see from the photo above). I feel like calling and complaining, but I've seen the brooms parked outside the rink of the ladies that work there. They are NOT your happy, friendly, "how can I help you?" type of ladies.
On a positive note, Matthew is getting good and so is Kennedy. They are enjoying it! YAY! (No photos from Day 2 as I was ON the ice with them or in the lobby with a grumpy 3-year-old.) P.S. Taking a 3-year-old to the potty when you and the kid have ice skates on is pretty interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment