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Karen De Vito, a lifelong skater, first put her son Jackson in skates when he was just a toddler. ?It took him until he was about three to find his feet, to get up and get moving,? she says. ?By four, he was booking it around the rink at top speed pushing on only one leg,? she laughs.
Somewhere between the ages of three and five, kids are ready to start on skates, says De Vito, a professional skating coach who?s been in charge of the preschool program at the Kitchener-Waterloo Skating Club in Waterloo, Ont., for five years. But, she adds, parents need to be patient. ?It?s a whole new environment, new equipment and new skill set. It can take quite a while for children to start to feel confident.?
That confidence comes from learning how to fall down and get back up without hurting themselves, says De Vito. ?There?s nothing more frustrating for kids than not being able to get back on their feet.? Her preschool skating classes start out in the lobby of the arena, on a rubber surface, where kids can begin to balance on their blades, fall down and get up again. ?We do this by showing them how to get on their knees, put one foot up, a second foot up, and then push up with their hands. Parents can hold onto the child?s skates to provide some stability,? says De Vito.
Getting on the ice

Next, they take these skills to the ice. ?Most of the time kids will be down,? says De Vito. ?That?s OK. They need to get used to the hard, cold, slippery surface. It takes practi...