I Get Knocked Down - But I get Up Again!

Here we are at Ice Skating again.  This week without Sara, but with our friend from pre-school and another little boy who was pretty amazing, he was all decked out in hockey gear and about 3 years old, she skated super fast and liked to crash against the walls. 

During this lesson we practiced getting up again.  How to put both hands on the ground between your legs and steady yourself and then get up.  Also she learned that when she got unsteady and felt like she might fall she had to bend at the knees, and put her hands on her knees.  This might keep her from falling.  Since the other two kids in the class could skate, the teacher was able to focus on Holly again, holding her hand and helping her until Practice Time when she was excited to use the buckets because they were super fast and she liked the independence of them.

But in general the couches don;t like the kids to use the buckets because they get too dependent on them, and also when they go faster then they are able to safely its not good.  During practice time there are several couches on the ice monitoring all of the kids and helping them out.  There was one couch he attached to Holly and was trying to coax her off the bucket.  He had previously taught special needs kids how to skate and noticed in Holly her anxiety and a kindred spirit.  She took to him and he showed her how she could push the bucket out a few feet in front of herself and then "March" to it without holding on.  They teach the kids to begin skating by marching, it is important to lift there legs up high at there knees to move forward.

So she spent the rest of the day pushing the bucket and then walking towards it, pushing again and walking towards it.  She was so super proud of herself, and so was I.