The boy had his first skating lesson today. The ice time lasted about an hour- although he and the 30 or so other first timers had all had enough after 45 minutes. There were no formal lessons or anything. The class basically consisted of suiting all the kids up and getting them on the ice. There were about 10 to 15 or so experienced skaters on the ice with them. They busied themselves by going from kid to kid making sure they all got a little one-on-one time. Mostly, though, it was obvious that the idea was to let the kids figure it out for themselves. That seemed about right. By the end, the boy actually finally did a little skating; regardless, he was cold, wet and ready to stop.
The most amusing moment came at the 45 minute mark when I happened to survey the ice. I’d say, conservatively, 90% of the kids were either laying, kneeling, or sitting on the ice. They’d all had it and were ready for ice time to be over.