Ice Skating

Friday we went ice skating with the children's school. The Kindergarten goes on this field trip to aid in their study of light and ice and invites the rest of the elementary school to go with them. Of course, Brady went with us anyway! Mrs. Niedrach says the purpose of this field trip is to teach about perseverance- to teach children that practicing something of difficulty will result in rewards. This was Leah's first time to go. Now, with the boys, they became easily frustrated and did not really enjoy their first time. In fact, Christian got mad and stomped off the ice last year (shocking!). Leah was a whole other story! She was patient, she listened to our advice, and she had a great attitude. We are always amazed at this. We are so used to expecting the same kind of reactions as the boys had at her age and we feel amazed when she doesn't. Wow! She was awesome!

We held on to her most of the time, but by the end, she was going around the edge by herself. Very impressive!

The other thing I must blog about regarding this trip is Christian. Holy cow was there a change this year from last year. I talked briefly with him before we left about not having a repeat of last years anger. We discussed having a good attitude and patience etc. etc. etc. If I was being honest though, I wasn't optimistic. Wow... he blew me away. He laughed when he fell, he persevered, he was amazing! He genuinely had fun and gave it his best. I praised him heavily. I may have even gone overboard, but I was just so happy and proud of him.

Christian definitely got Mrs. Niedrach's lesson this year. For the past two years, he has worked to try to ice skate. He has been frustrated and stated numerous times that it was too hard. This year, the result of all that hard work paid off and he finally got it! He learned that sticking with something, even though it's difficult, will result in a reward. The reward of learning a new skill and having fun!

Of course, Brady is a pro by now. He learned a while ago how to do it and he zips around the rink just fine.

We had a great trip!