Learning to Skate/Learning to Play

I wanted to sign up the kids for some kind of classes. R had learned a bit about floor hockey in school and really liked it, so I looked for a class or team that he could join. I lucked out and found an "Under 6" floor hockey league run by the Parks and Rec department that had spaces left for three kids. I registered on their website, but had to wait two days to get a password to use to sign him up. (Whoever heard of *waiting* for a password on the net?) Of course, by the time I got the password, there was no more room in the classs. Argh! So, I kept looking for something else for him to do -- something that would give him some excercise during the winter months.

His grandma gave him some ice skates for Christmas so that he could skate on their lake. When we went out on the lake, he wasn't too bad. I found a class called "Learn to Skate/Learn to Play Hockey". When I signed up, I made sure that it was okay that he didn't know how to skate. No problem, I was told. Today was the big day for the first class. It was from 8-9 in the morning. We showed up at 8:00 on the dot and there were two other kids with their parents, but no teacher. The man who was opening the rink up for the day told us that we were early because the class started at 9:00. Hmmmm.... Oh well. He let us use the rink. Luckily I brought T's skates too, so we all went out on the rink. I was in the middle, holding each boy's arm strongly as they shuffled their way on the rink. They were laughing and giggling the whole time as they tried to keep their balance. R went on his own a few times, making about 5 or 6 strides before he crashed on the ice. After falling, he would look up with a grin and say "did you see me skate mom? I did it myself!"

At 9:00 more kids came and more coaches came. The coach for R's class asked if I had his equipment....I told him we had his skates. He said, go over to the equipment locker and the coach will get you set up. Well......we are now the proud owners of a complete hockey set up. We have shin guards, elbow pads, kidney pads (that makes a mom nervous), long socks, garter belt, shoulder and chest pad, helmet, gloves and a helmet. I didn't know we were going to learn to skate while wearing all of this stuff! I must say that I was getting a bit nervous as I realized what I had done....I'm not a fan of hockey for my kids. It's kind of like football -- people get hurt. But as I watched the 70 kids in their 6 different classes out on the rink, I decided it was okay. After all, he's just learning to skate...we're not signing him up for the NHL, right? And the huge grin on my boy's face as he was getting fitted up was priceless. Every now and then, he would jump up and down in place a few times, saying "I can't believe I get all of this hockey gear. This is so cool!" So, even though it wasn't what I bargained for, I think that I'm looking forward to every Tuesdays and Saturdays at the rink cheering R on.