As you can tell, the kids were super psyched on the way to their first ice skating lesson!
The instructor spread around a bunch of little toys. The goal was to pick up each toy and bring it over to the green basket. The goal of the exercise was to get them comfortable "marching" in their skates, in addition to lots of practice with safe falls and properly getting back up on their feet.
Brooke figured out pretty quickly how to get up and down, and also learned how to take it slow as she moved her toy towards the basket. Ryan spent a lot of time down on the ice ;) By the end of the lesson he was pretty comfortable with falling and getting back up but less so in the actual movement on skates. He decided it would be easier to pick up toys and crawl towards the basket with them, avoiding the actual skating part altogether.
After lessons were over, Ryan kept asking to go back out on the ice. We changed out their wet clothes in the same locker room other kids used to get ready for hockey practice ... and Ryan's eyes lit up. He was fascinated with the pads, but even more fascinated when one of the kids warmed up with some off-ice stick/puck handling. He was sold. We told him he'd get his chance to play hockey ... AFTER he learned to skate. We might see some extra vigor on the ice at next weeks lesson :)
