Roller Skating

We all had Monday, Labor Day, off together as a family and enjoyed a round of mini-golf and dinner at our favorite place.

Tuesday, we had our second "Not Back To School" party for our local county. There were probably 20 families that met at the local Roller Skating arena. The Mavster went skating for the first time about 2 years ago, and it was tough on him - lots of falls and frustration. This time, many of the kids were using rolling-walker type contraptions to hold on to as they learned, and I gladly got one for him to try. But I intentionally didn't give him any advice or instruction on how to skate. He is at a stage where he wants to figure it out for himself - and as many unschoolers know, when a child wants to learn something on their own, they learn more quickly and for the long run. So I put on skates for the first time in 20+ *cough* years and went around with him a few times, then let him figure it out. It wasn't long before he came over and told me he'd figured out how to go faster - just turn his feet out and push! Fantastic! :) We were there for about 2 hours, and by the time we left, he could go around almost a whole time by himself, and was pushing the walker away from him as he went along to skate on his own.

It was a great lesson for me, too, to let him figure something out on his own - no advice/suggestions from me, and to see how natural/peaceful it was for him to learn. He was determined to figure it out on his own, never complained that I was trying to tell him how to do things. Overall, lots of fun!