practice notebook is the way to go. At the end of the practice session if she checked off everything she ewas to practice you can give a sticker. Most 7 year olds just don't know what to do without structure. Creating a notebook makes it fun and then she can practice what she likes and doesn't like.

Talk to her coach and see if she can get one started.

I talked with her coach last night.
This is exactly what we agreed to- stickers and all! My dd agreed with this approach as well.

And if she is having trouble with something, she will be able to tell by the lack of stickers (sometimes she forgets how to do a certain thing that is new or that she hasn't done in a while)

Thanks all

What about getting her to play skating games that get her to practice the things she should be practicing? You could see about talking to her coach and some of the other parents and their coaches about doing games like "Add On", "Follow the leader" "Mirror" (this one needs a skater who is a CCW skater and one that is a CW skater for each mirror set) and so on. There are ways to trick young kids into practicing things they don't want to do and to stop the whinning.

I'm an adult skater who has PA'd on CanSkate (learn to skate in Canada), PrePrelim and PrePowerSkate. I've also been a volunteer music teacher at a private school for 5 years and a youth group leader at my church. Plus, adult skaters are kids at heart in bigger and older bodies.

How the game "Add On" works; one of the moms, dads or coaches calls out a simple move or element to the first skater, then the next skater has to repeat that jump and then add on to it whatever is called out next, then the first or next (depending how many skaters are playing) will call out another element to add on to what has already been called out. Sometimes it's not about changing elements but doing more of the same then any other skater. You can even mix levels of skaters too by saying to one skater to do half jumps and the other full 1 rotation jumps or when they move up to a session with higher level skaters, they do 1 rotation of a toe loop but their more skilled skater friend has to do a double toe loop and so on. Same with spins. A beginner can do a two footed sit spin, while your daughter could do a reg. forward sit on one foot and then maybe a more advanced skater could do a forward sit in a broken position instead. Each one practicing what they need to do at their own level, yet playing against each other having fun.

For Mirror, I'd make sure to have them timed slightly out of sinc so that they end up crisscrossing each one after the other in their paths if jumping or doing stroking. This will also help them when having to run through programs so they don't get too nervous about other skaters skating near them as they go through their programs.

singerskates

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

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