A local ice skating rink has a homeschool time every Thursday for an hour. Today we went for the first time. I am NOT an ice skater - I've been twice and broke my arm one of those times LOL. But I thought my kids might enjoy it, and some of their best friends were going too, so we went.
L (4.5) gave up after about 5 minutes. I was iffy about letting her do it anyway, so I wasn't too surprised when she came off the ice, crying that she was scared. So off came the skates, and she spent the rest of the time coloring.
C (6.5), however, gave up about 30 minutes into it. Now, C tends to try to get the easy way out of things ANYWAY. (You should see him when we tell him to put his clothes away - good grief.) But he learned lots of different things today since I wouldn't let him quit, mean mom that I am.
We have to practice sometimes. I think he was expecting to be able to get on the ice and BOOM, be able to skate. And it frustrated him that he couldn't. I told him that he actually was doing better than I ever did! And he'll only get better as he practices. And YES, he will most likely fall in the process. But you just gotta get up and keep on going.
Sometimes we have to stick with it, even when it's hard. C tends to be somewhat of a weanie anyway when it comes to stuff LOL, and this was just another one of those times when he wanted to give up when it was slightly difficult.
Sometimes when we stick with something, we eventually learn that we just might like it. At the end of the time, he was actually almost smiling.
We can't quit just because something isn't how we expected it to be. He kept telling me that he "didn't think the ice would be so slippery." Which, no, he didn't know ahead of time, since he'd never been ice skating before. But just because something isn't what we thought it would be doesn't mean we can just up and give up.
Sometimes we have to finish what we started, so as to not waste someone's time/money. It cost $6 for him to skate today. An hour (and actually by the time he got his skates on and such, it was only 45 minutes) is not too long to ask him to skate since I had paid the money. Especially since he was just being a toot anyway. ;-)
I'm not going to force him to go again. He's more than welcome to, and if he does choose to go again, I'll expect him to follow through then as well. But I won't MAKE him go again. But today yes, I was "mean" and made him finish, even though he "didn't want to skate anymore." What he learned today wasn't really about ice skating anyway.
L (4.5) gave up after about 5 minutes. I was iffy about letting her do it anyway, so I wasn't too surprised when she came off the ice, crying that she was scared. So off came the skates, and she spent the rest of the time coloring.
C (6.5), however, gave up about 30 minutes into it. Now, C tends to try to get the easy way out of things ANYWAY. (You should see him when we tell him to put his clothes away - good grief.) But he learned lots of different things today since I wouldn't let him quit, mean mom that I am.
We have to practice sometimes. I think he was expecting to be able to get on the ice and BOOM, be able to skate. And it frustrated him that he couldn't. I told him that he actually was doing better than I ever did! And he'll only get better as he practices. And YES, he will most likely fall in the process. But you just gotta get up and keep on going.
Sometimes we have to stick with it, even when it's hard. C tends to be somewhat of a weanie anyway when it comes to stuff LOL, and this was just another one of those times when he wanted to give up when it was slightly difficult.
Sometimes when we stick with something, we eventually learn that we just might like it. At the end of the time, he was actually almost smiling.
We can't quit just because something isn't how we expected it to be. He kept telling me that he "didn't think the ice would be so slippery." Which, no, he didn't know ahead of time, since he'd never been ice skating before. But just because something isn't what we thought it would be doesn't mean we can just up and give up.
Sometimes we have to finish what we started, so as to not waste someone's time/money. It cost $6 for him to skate today. An hour (and actually by the time he got his skates on and such, it was only 45 minutes) is not too long to ask him to skate since I had paid the money. Especially since he was just being a toot anyway. ;-)
I'm not going to force him to go again. He's more than welcome to, and if he does choose to go again, I'll expect him to follow through then as well. But I won't MAKE him go again. But today yes, I was "mean" and made him finish, even though he "didn't want to skate anymore." What he learned today wasn't really about ice skating anyway.
