My coach has asked me to help out one of her regular coaches during a half-hour learn-to-skate class on Monday nights (since I'm warming up on the patch ice anyway). I helped last Monday at the last minute and found we had a group of 10 kids ages 4 and 5 (no wonder she needed help herding the crowd).

Most of the kids were at least trying to follow directions, but there were a couple of youngsters that went every which direction whenever they got the urge.

Any tips on keeping kids focused?

I've thought about splitting the group into 2 groups of 5 and then following the coach's lead on skills.

The best way is to keep them moving and separate the distracting ones from all the other kids. The way my club does it is there's 6 groups of 6-7 kids all different levels on at the same time. There's 3 stations they go to every night each one for 12 minutes. One is a lesson with a coach, another is creative-where they can play games like What Time Is It Mr. Wolf-, and the other is a circuit that has different elements from their level. And there's 5 minutes warm up before and a 5 minute cool down after where they do the chicken dance. Hope this helps a little!

Caitlin

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The passion for perfection The dream to be the best there ever was That is the flame that burns within me That is what I skate for

Wow, great age group (I do love teaching them but they're pretty exausting).

Number 1, keep them moving. Doing things one kid at a time is cold and boring.

Number 2: Watch the ones who wander back to mommy and daddy (generally the biggest distraction...). If there's a lot of that, move your group away from where the parents are and suggest to parents who hang over the boards or keep on waving/encouraging their kids that their kids might participate more in the lesson and learn more if the parents keep a lower profile.

Number 3: remember, they generally don't have the longest attention spans... you'll need to work a skill for all you can and watch how your group is doing to figure out when to get them to move on to something else. They're still at an age that they're willing to do silly things so I try turning a lot of skills practices into games to try keep their attention a little longer: I make them "duck walk" (this includes quacking and sometimes flapping wings) to practice pushing off the sides of the blade (instead of toe-pushing), I used to see who could make the most snow to practice stopping (watch out, certain kids will want to EAT their snow), now I try get them to play statue (first get them to stop only, then ask for things like freezing and making funy faces or funny positions or something). If you divide the kids into 2 groups, switch with the other teacher partway through (you can often get them to do more work on things they've already worked on to show off to their new teacher).

Good luck, have fun and keep us posted on how it goes.

If I'm lucky enough to have a helper, I usually split the kids into two groups- one for the more mobile/gutsy kids, and one for kids who are less coordinated and/or more timid. That way, the more mobile kids aren't getting bored, and the slower kids aren't trying things they aren't ready for- or don't think they're ready for.

I like the idea of dividing them based more on attention span, though. I wish I had thought of that a couple years ago. I had a group of 12 Basic 3's and 4's, all of whom were really more like Basic 2's, and one of them was this adorable little boy about 5 or 6 years old who clearly had ADHD. Cute, but his attention span was literally seconds long.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Our sessions are like Caitlin's. There's areas with activities and it keeps them moving. I don't teach, minor problem of not having passed any tests but since I've worked with special needs kids for years I get the kids that have ADHD or ADD or want mommy or are having a bad day and try to get them to at least stay with their group. Are they learning anything? I doubt it but I try to at least get them to think that skating is a fun activity. We actively recruit mature helpers to "herd kids", skating ability isn't so important.

My favorite tool is a marker, used to draw on the ice, to scrape off the marking, to jump up and down on the drawings, to draw squiggly lines they have to follow.

Im a kid and belive me the best way to entertain us is to keep moving!
Dont stop! we like to be involved in just about everything hat is going on!
So keep us doing something so we dont become unocupied if you dont do this you will sure have a bad time with some of the younger kids especialy if they are also very impatient!

Well goodluck!

Make things fun, and keep them moving.
Good luck!!

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Until later,
*Lily*

The group lesson went pretty well last night.

I had a chat with the most outgoing of the kids in the warming room before class. We played a couple of practice games off ice (dips, swizzles, etc) and talked about going slow to learn to go fast. He became my example on the ice and did a good job.

One youngster had dumped his figure skates for some too-large hockey skates and was having all types of trouble (tears ). I finally convinced him that it wasn't him, but his skates. After a talk with mom, he'll be back in figure skates next week.

After the group class, the coach had a two person group class. One of those two was obviously needed special attention. I butted in and took her as my student. After we got through the sitting on the ice and kicking tantrum and the grab my hands and let me swing routine, things settled down a bit.

She finally found that holding my hands and pushing my backward around the ice was fun, so I went with it. If nothing else, she got a good workout and practiced pushing with her edges. Maybe next week I'll have her pull me instead.