Tonight I had a new 4 year old boy who wanted to skate until he actually put skate to ice. It was complicated by the kid's not speaking much English. He was in tears very quickly, and would not even try to stand up. His father rented skates, but by then the poor kid was beyond help. While father and son sat on the bench to chat and rest, I got Mr. Pumpkinhead, my skating stuffed vegetable, beloved by all children thus far.

Of course the little one wanted to play ball. We started with him still sitting on the bench, then standing, then walking (in skates) to pick up the ball, and finally, when he was really giggling and having a great time, I put Mr. Pumpkinhead on the ice.

With me and his father both holding him, he ventured out to Mr. Pumpkinhead and gave him a kick accompanied by grins and giggles. Off we went to do the same thing several more times. Then, I suggested that he pick up Mr. P., instead of kicking him, and we continued like that. Ultimately, I was skating with the child, no Dad. He let me give him a little twirl around, and liked it. This one is going to take a lot of work, but I think he will skate given time and patience. Don't know what I would do without the world's only skating stuffed vegetable

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Sounds like a great low-carb skating lesson.

Great idea, dbny!!!

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Don't you love all the ways kids can be tricked into trying something? Now, I don't mean this in a negative way at all - I think it's important for kids to go through this whole process of not wanting to try something, and then figuring out a little while later that they've done it already...

For little Jacob, a student from my kindergarten class, and also a Basic Skills skater, it was a beanie baby rabbit. I knew he was obsessed with rabbits, so I used that obsession to get him to skate away from the boards, etc. "Hey Jacob, look at this silly rabbit out here on the ice!"

It took two sessions to get him to go out there without "Mr Bunny", but by the end of the year, he was zipping around, telling Icy (my daughter, and learn-to-skate helper) that "you can't not have the Jacob!"

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.

sounds like a good idea.... we see lots of scared kids... even older ones:{

DB, do you know what his first language is? I've trained with enough foreign skaters that I know some basic skating terms in quite a few languages.

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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!

.........РУСКИИ........

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Gesundheit. Great job with the student, as always!

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DB, I don't know if I remember any of my Russian phrases but I still have my dictionary somewhere. If I get a chance tonight I'll try to look up some stuff like "Good job!" I should probably do that anyway- we have a sizeable Russian and Polish immigrant population in my area, and sooner or later it'll probably come in handy for me too. I actually had a similar situation last session with my class, except the little guy spoke what I think was Polish. Russian and Ukrainian I can pick out words of, but I don't know any Polish at all.

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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!