Session 2 finished! Now what to do?!?

Peanut & Macnut has completed their second session of group ice skating lessons.  Macnut, of course completed & passed the Basic 2 level.  Since soccer season will begin in August, she will have to put ice skating lessons on hold & settle for public skating time.  She is not too thrilled about it, but says that she understands why she has to put skating on hold until soccer season is over (but she still complains that it's not fair that Peanut still gets to skate).

Peanut has completed all 3 levels of the SnowPlow Sam series & her coach says that she is ready for the Basic Skills levels.  I'm not quite sure if she, or rather, I am ready for it.  It's not that she doesn't have the skating ablility to go into the Basic 1 or Basic 2 level, it's more that she will be in a class with kids that are twice her age.  Since the Basic levels usually starts with kids that are 6 years or older and since Peanut is pretty tiny to begin with it kind of scares me that a 9 year old can potentially fall & take poor Peanut down with her!  So I am thinking that maybe I need to invest in some private or semi-private lessons for her.   That may put my mind at ease & I won't have to worry about an older kid crashing into & possibly traumatizing my poor Peanut.  However, at this point, I don't think anything can traumatize Peanut from skating since she loves it so much.

Peanut doesn't like change!

The girls have recently started their second session of ice skating.  Since Macnut will start soccer in August she will be stopping group lessons until soccer season is over (and she is fine with that as long as she gets to have practice ice time to keep up her skills). 

So I figured that I would sign Macnut up on the day that her BFF will be skating & 'fast-track' Peanut.  Fast-tracking would mean that Peanut would be able to take group lessons 2-3 times a week instead of 1.  Peanut was keen on this idea until she went out for the Wednesday group lesson & found out that the instructor for the lesson was not her favorite coach.  The new instructor came over to help her out on the ice & there was a look of sheer terror on her face & she started crying like crazy (poor thing). 

We basically stood out at the doorway of the ice with her crying the whole time.  Other coaches tried to get her out by asking if she wanted stickers or if she wanted to fly out to the lesson.  She flatly refused all offers, even my offer to buy her something from the gumball machines or snack bar.  This is highly unusual as she is very easily bribed. 

Not quite sure what happened that day, but I had to unfast-track her & sign her up for Thursday lessons as The Favorite Coach is luckily teaching her level that day.  When we got home I asked her why she didn't want to go out on the ice, she said 'I don't like changing coaches'. 

The next day, Peanut went out on the ice happy as can be as soon as she saw The Favorite Coach.  Oyvay, I wonder what is going to happen next session if The Favorite Coach isn't teaching her level.  Does that mean that we have to start shelling out for private lessons for Peanut?

First Ice Skating Session is finished!!

Peanut & Macnut has just completed their first session of Figure Skating Academy & they both did great!  Macnut successfully completed the Basic 1 level and is signed up for Basic 2 which starts next week. 

Peanut however, moved from Snowplow Sam 1 midway through this session to Snowplow Sam 2, and has successfully passed both levels in one session!  =)  She has graduated to the next level, Snowplow Sam 3.  I am extremely proud of both girls! 

At the end of class, they both got extremely excited over the certificates & report cards that they got.  And if that was not enough, the icing on the cake was that each girl also got a medal.  Peanut was super excited about the medal & said "Mommy, I got my first medal in ice skating!!  Now I need to work really hard to get my trophy!"  But in order for Peanut to get that trophy, she has to enter a competition & skate.  I guess that means that we will be signing Peanut up soon for private lessons so she can work with a coach and a routine.  I'm sure she won't mind as long as she gets to skate to the song "I Have A Dream" a.k.a. in our house the Pub Thugs song from Tangeled.

Peanut watches her first ISI open competition.

Today I took Peanut & Macnut to watch their first competition at the Ice Palace.  Since they have just begun skating, I figured that they would get a better feel of what they can work towards.  They also had some friends skating in the competition, so it was exciting for them to help support & cheer their IceFriends on. 

Peanut has been saying that she wants to skate really good so she can win a trophy, so I told her that if she skates & practices really hard, that she could eventually enter a competition and win a trophy of her own (she didn't seem to like the idea as she is a very shy kid).  However, when it came time for the skaters to warm-up & skate their routines, she was glued to the glass like a starfish. 

After the competition on the way home, I asked if she enjoyed it & she said yes.  Then I further inquired if she was possibly interested in competing one day, she immediately said "Yes, Mommy!  And I want to skate to the Pug Thugs song (aka I Have A Dream from the movie Tangled)".  Who knows, she may start participating in a competition next year.

Peanut wants to learn skate

One day Peanut, who is 3, asked if she could take ice skating lessons.  I knew that it can become a very expensive sport (the 8 week ice academy is alone $96/session).  I happen to find a really good deal off of a deal site, which only cost me initially $30 for the ice academy, so I figured, why not have her try it.  If she doesn't like it, then it's only $39 down the drain.  So I signed her & her older sister (she will be known as Macnut) for lessons. 

As we walked into the ice rink, I thought, she'll be cold, fall down & not want to do it and we'll only have to make the drive to the rink 7 more times.  Boy was I wrong!!  Not only does she love it, she actually has a natural talent for it.  Keep in mind that this is a child who could 'hurt herself sitting down in an open field', but she manages to stay upright (for the most part) on her skates. 

I know that I should of started this blog 5 weeks ago, since we started the group lessons on 3/26/11, but I just thought that I should keep a log for myself & for the girls of  their progress in ice skating. 

And thus our adventures in ice skating begins.