So, we joined another homeschool group in cyberspace. They are a Catholic group from JAX and we wanted to meet them in person. Friday night, we met them at a "Back to School" skate night!
First of all, I like that the group is so big, there were at least 20 families there and, because they are Catholic, there were a load of kiddos! How wonderful. I have a sneaky suspision that these guys will have better luck at getting the "group discounts" thing that us homeschoolers are always trying to get for our field trips!
For Abi and Aaron this was a first time. It was like they were learning to walk all over again! I'm there encouraging them, "come on, you can do it, just get to me!" I can't really remember any words of advice from when I learned unfortunately. They were not nearly as good humoured about it at first. We had taken Aaron's bud Riley (also 8 yrs old) with us and you could say that I was outnumbered. It was also Riley's first time skating. So, 3 kiddos, 1 mom to help each of them. Naturally they were nowhere close to one another (probably a good thing from a safety point of view). But whilst I'm helping 1 the other 2 are struggling. Red faced and sweaty Aaron said/shouted to me, "What are you doing?! While you were with Abi, Riley is over there doing the splits and I have fallen about a hundred times!" It was sooooooo funny but I didn't laugh. He was so mad. I calmly explained that I am 1 and they are 3 and I cannot be everywhere at once. Riley approached me after a while when I was helping Aaron, "Do you know that I was on the floor for 49 seconds over there! Where were you?" Again I gave my spiel about 1 mom, 3 kids etc. Abi fell down every single time she saw me with the camera. I had to sneak pics and vids of her. They were all soooooo mad from 5-6pm. Aaron had even taken off his skates and tossed them across the snack bar area! But then, from 6-7pm they were having a blast! Falling down and laughing and getting up and going again. Each one of them thanked me for taking them because it was the most fun they had ever had. What a roller coaster of emotions.
It is funny how well they did when I couldn't be with them. I noticed that if I wasn't there to help, they managed much better! Moral of the story, leave them alone until they are happier and then join in!:)
Roller skating is a lot like life, sometimes it sucks, sometimes it is a blast, sometimes you laugh and sometimes you cry, you fall down, you get back up. Aaron told me later that he had prayed to God after his tantrum at the snack bar. That is how he was able to go around again. He managed 2 times around in 2 hours, the first time around he crawled half of it. Bless him. Abi started to get the hang of it but she is so tall she has further to fall and has a very swollen and bruised knee today (which she keeps saying is bust open, hardly) but it does look sore. Riley was like the kid that we all remember at the rink who runs more than skates. He was like a windmill... arms flailing. He didn't glide and swoosh, more of a clackety clack around the rink. So funny, so entertaining. What a wonderful time. I loved hearing Footloose and some of the other classics. Unfortunately I didn't get to skate because I am old and have a bad back now. But I would have loved to.
We didn't get to chit chat much with the other homeschoolers because they were all going through their own little hell and chaos but they were all smiling and offered help where they could. Hope to meet them again but not on wheels!:)
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