Is this about right for toddler?

[littlekateskate]

Hello all. I am a newer skating parent of a 3 year old (will be 4 in august) and new to the threads. I know nothing about skating other than i love to watch the sport.

My daughter loves skating soo much. She has passed ISI tot3 and usfs basic one. She cant do a tpush otherwise she would have passed tot 4 as well. She is beginning her crossovers, skates backwards wonderfully ect ect. I am just curious what I should be expecting to see from her.

Isi and USFS's requirements for patches are so different.

My daughter does one group and two private a week. Should I expect alot of improvement from her or at this age do they kind of cap out?

Thanks for all your help and info, I can use it :)

Littlekateskate

[jskater49]

I think all you should expect of a three year old is that she is having fun. Period.

j

[dbny]

I teach tots, and I can tell you that in addition to what jskater49 has said, every child progresses at their own rate. Progress depends on a lot of things including muscle tone, balance, coordination, motivation and attention span. All of those are very variable from child to child as they are from one adult to another. If your daughter enjoys the group and private lessons and wants to skate, then that is all you can ask for.

I'm curious as to why she is having a group lesson and two private lessons a week. Did she ask for more lessons, or did you feel she "needed" them? If you are paying for expensive freestyle ice, I can understand that you would want the time spent working on skills, but at three, your daughter will not be able to appreciate that sentiment. Speaking from experience as a mother, it is very easy to give a child more than they really want, and in doing so, pressure the child to perform without really intending to. As long as your daughter is eager to go to the rink and looks forward to her lessons, you know you haven't gone wrong in that respect.

[Logan3]

Hello and welcome to the slippery world of figure skating!
I agree with the above posts. Every child progresses differently. My dd started skating when she was 4 and she flew over the lower badges just with group classes. Some elements she would get them just in one day. Now at 7 she is in freestlyles and some elements it seems she will never get .... She works really hard and the progress is slow. She is very happy though and when she finally gets something she feels extremily accomplished. One of the girls we know had to repeat again and again snowplow1 and now at freestlyles she is doing a great job! No matter how tallented a child is, there is a LONG way ahead! There will be fast progress and slow progress, "quit" moments and "I am the best" moments. Eventually every skater takes his/her own parth with his/her own goals.

[jskater49]

I taught a little girl who was about 4 in Learn to skate. She spent the entire session sitting on the ice kicking the ice. She landed an axel when she was 7. Another little girl took to it, picked up everything quickly and loved it, competed, won everything. Until she was 6 and then she decided she wanted to play T ball instead. Shrug.

j

[peanutskates]

1 group and 2 privates??? this for a 3 yr old???
If I had a 3 yr old kid who wanted to skate, I'd do one group lesson, max. i mean, personally, I only started private lessons when I passed all 10 SkateUK levels (leaving with skills such as doing crossovers in a figure of 8, bunny hop, cross rolls, chasses) and was too good for our bronze, silver, gold group.

an important thing, your DD might progress very quickly in private lessons, and be doing all sorts of things at 5 yrs old etc, but when she gets her growth spurt, she will most likely lose most of her jumps and will have to work really really hard to get them back. So is it worth the rush when she'll just go back from square 20 back to square 1 (or maybe like 3) in learning difficult elements? just let her enjoy it. instead of privates, send her on a normal session and let her skate for the fun of it!

BTW, can you send a vid of her skating? i love to see little kids skate :) and also maybe we can give you some feedback?

[Mrs Redboots]

Every child is different. I know a little girl who's been skating since she was 3. She is now 7, and it's only really in the past year that she's had the discipline to really do any work, pass tests (NISA tests, not just SkateUK) and in fact compete in solo dance qualifiers, where she totally hasn't disgraced herself, although she's not qualified this year. But until this year, she simply didn't have the concentration or discipline to work - she skated nearly every day, but it was always playing about.

[Isk8NYC]

Isi and USFS's requirements for patches are so different. Actually, they're almost always on the same page, but the ISI includes one or two "tough" elements on each test to make it a challenge, whereas the USFSA program grouped everything together by skill level. Both are very good programs. My daughter does one group and two private a week. Should I expect alot of improvement from her or at this age do they kind of cap out?As long as she's having fun and making friends while learning, she's progressing well.

Three lessons a week is a lot for a tyke - are the lessons all 30 minutes? If she has the attention span to pay attention for the full 30 minutes, that's wonderful. In teaching Mommy & Me, I found many kids that age couldn't "Just skate" for more than 20 minutes. We mixed it up with silly cone races, and off-ice warmups, just to keep them stimulated. Still skating lessons, just different variations/exercises.

One little skater I know takes a half-hour group AND a 15-minute lesson one day, then one 15-minute lesson on a different day. Her older sister skated a different day and little one felt left out. LOL

Welcome to SkatingForums and thanks for contributing!

[littlekateskate]

thank you all for your input..

My daughter begs me everyday to go skating. She is a very active little girl and if she sits at home one day she just cries because she gets bored to tears.

She skates the two private lessons one to help her with her ISI routine, but mainly because I cant be out on the ice with her (i have two younger children in the stroller, lol) I would love to just take her to open sessions but I am not comfortable with her going out there with all the crazees on her own.

All of her lessons are 30 minutes long.

And to whom mentioned her growing and having to relearn things!! I never even thought about that. I did notice her having to almost releanr her crossovers when she had to move up to the next size skate (but it only took a few lessons).

So again thank you all for such wonderful input. MY daughter just truly loves to skate and as long as she enjoys and craves it I plan on letting her do it as much as she can.

[slusher]

Some kids are naturals. One of my coaches just had her eight year old daughter pass her gold skills. She's been on the ice since she could stand since Mom brought her to the rink everyday so free ice. She got coached all the time because we all used to show her things. So, genetics plus skating everyday results in a very advanced skater. This is atypical.

As a kid I skated every day in the winter because we had outdoor rinks. I didn't get lessons (unheard of) but loved skating. It was just another activity. I can understand why she'd want to skate all the time.

I can see the position that you're in. You don't have free ice everyday where your child can skate to her heart's content, and the solution is expensive privates. If you can afford it and the teaching isn't getting in the way of fun, why not.

[Sessy]

I think for a 3 year old you might wanna spend the money on ballet or gymnastics, not on privates skating.

[cathrl]

I'd be startled if a 3 year old was getting value-for-money from a 30 minute lesson - I mean, my 10 year old (who by no means has a short attention span, she's pretty academic) has only just started having 30 minutes rather than 2 x 15 minutes - and her coach still splits it into 2 x 15 minutes if she's not concentrating, because the child who would come after is always on the ice anyway. But I can appreciate your comment that you don't want her out there alone on a busy public session. Maybe there's a quieter session she could skate at and get to know some of the kids, rather than always being with an adult? Our rink has a family club where lots of little ones skate. It will be important, if she carries on with skating, that she is prepared to practice without always having a coach to guide her.

Annabel, in that case you must actually know two kids who started at 3 and are now doing the solo ice dance qualifiers :) Though mine still hopes to qualify - shame she's drawn number 1 for the compulsory tomorrow...

My 7 year old still doesn't want to do anything other than play about on the ice, though he'll practise the piano till the cows come home, and has taken several exams in that. They're all different.

[twokidsskatemom]

Both my kids started privates early.They had 15 or 20 min lessons I think till they were at least 5.My daughter competed at age 4, my son a little younger.
The good thing is because they couldnt do jumps/spins so young, they spent at lot of time on basic skating skills.
I take it you can afford three lessons a week?If so, no harm. But know that its not lessons you are paying for, its supervised practice.Take it from someone that knows, there is only so much you can teach a young child. They just dont have the muscles that an older child has to do certain skating.
Good luck !! We have been skating 4/5 times a week for 4 years now :)

[Mrs Redboots]

Annabel, in that case you must actually know two kids who started at 3 and are now doing the solo ice dance qualifiers :) Though mine still hopes to qualify - shame she's drawn number 1 for the compulsory tomorrow...

Yes, yours finished several places higher than ours at Ally Pally! But that was this little one's first-ever qualifier, and she totally didn't disgrace herself, rather the reverse, I'm told. Best of luck to H. tomorrow!

[dbny]

Not everyone grows so quickly that they have to relearn skills. Girls tend to grow more slowly and steadily than boys, but if they sprout busts and hips early in adolescence, then it can definitely be a problem. Your daughter is only 3, this in not anything you need to be concerned about now :).

[fmh]

If your kid likes to skate i see no problem with what you're doing, just make sure skating isnt the only thing she does so if when she has something to fall back on if she has to. I have two friends who started skating at that age. One of them loved the sport all a long and still does, and she does well. the other one loved the sport and then sort of changed her intrests when she was about 9 and then quit and still plays basket ball and volleyball. in a sort of conclusion what you are doing seems fine

[SynchroSk8r114]

Personally, I agree with jskater49. As long as she's enjoying what she does, I would let her continue to skate and not expect too much. She's only 3, after all. And from what you've posted, it sounds as though she's doing far better than any 3-year-old I know...and I teach Tots! :lol:

As far as lessons go, use your own judgement. It's hard to say whether two privates and a group lesson each week is too much for her because as long as she's enjoying it, there's really no harm. At three, however, I just wouldn't expect too much out of her, but would continue to support her skating developments as they come. Your daughter doesn't seem worried - neither should you. I would just be careful that the lessons are productive, considering that you are probably putting a good deal of time and money into them. It sounds as though your daughter is capable of paying attention for a good period of time, but I've seen kids this age who simply want to slide all over the ice or who lose interest quickly. Again, my advice would be to use your own judgement and monitor your child's lessons, not necessarily her ability.