MomOTwins
11-26-2007, 03:33 PM
Anyone have any experience with trying to teach their kids how to rollerskate? We got invited to a birthday party for one of Andrew's (HFA) classmates last week. His parents had rented out 2 hours of private party time at a local roller rink! All 3 siblings in this family have birthdays close together, so they threw a party to include the friends/classmates of all of the kids.
There was a huge (think of a 2-story tall) climbing maze, video games, pool table, and snack bar with pizza. All the favorite things of 9-11 year old boys!!! Oh yeah, and a bubble machine on the flashing-light disco stage (needed to include the little sister's friends).
The whole family was invited, so we showed up with our gifts (drawing set and Moon Sand, just a guess, as Andrew only said that Jordan liked drawing), twin brother in tow, and ready to party. The boys had a GREAT TIME mingling with the other kids, climbing the climber, and Andrew decided that he wanted to skate. He had no experience with skates at all, so DH and I were really amazed that he said he'd try them. I got the part of the job where the skater rams into your feet with his skates while trying to figure out how to balance on those deadly devices. OUCH...my toes are still sore. I should have gotten steel-toed work boots for that job! He made it 1.5 loops around the rink before deciding that the climber or the motorcross videogame were more exciting. We were happy that he got that far on his own interest, even with a girl from his class encouraging him to "watch how I do it" and zooming by with no assistance. Chloe is an absolute sweetheart, but she could easily skate rings around him without looking, probably a little too intimidating for my "skate trainee".
The big question that I have is - How do you get someone comfortable with rollerskating? As a kid, I had sidewalks and clamp-on skates to work with, but we don't have sidewalks and don't have clamp-on skates (do they even make them anymore?). Any ideas?
Kim
There was a huge (think of a 2-story tall) climbing maze, video games, pool table, and snack bar with pizza. All the favorite things of 9-11 year old boys!!! Oh yeah, and a bubble machine on the flashing-light disco stage (needed to include the little sister's friends).
The whole family was invited, so we showed up with our gifts (drawing set and Moon Sand, just a guess, as Andrew only said that Jordan liked drawing), twin brother in tow, and ready to party. The boys had a GREAT TIME mingling with the other kids, climbing the climber, and Andrew decided that he wanted to skate. He had no experience with skates at all, so DH and I were really amazed that he said he'd try them. I got the part of the job where the skater rams into your feet with his skates while trying to figure out how to balance on those deadly devices. OUCH...my toes are still sore. I should have gotten steel-toed work boots for that job! He made it 1.5 loops around the rink before deciding that the climber or the motorcross videogame were more exciting. We were happy that he got that far on his own interest, even with a girl from his class encouraging him to "watch how I do it" and zooming by with no assistance. Chloe is an absolute sweetheart, but she could easily skate rings around him without looking, probably a little too intimidating for my "skate trainee".
The big question that I have is - How do you get someone comfortable with rollerskating? As a kid, I had sidewalks and clamp-on skates to work with, but we don't have sidewalks and don't have clamp-on skates (do they even make them anymore?). Any ideas?
Kim