Janeway Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 The children really wanted to learn how to ice skate and some were offered for free about thirty minutes from here so I took them. They loved it! At the end of these lessons, the rink offered half priced lessons for a period of time. We are doing that as half price is great! I only have to pay $70 for the next 5 lessons for the two of them together. However, I can see on the price sheet that after this, it will be more like over $100 a month per child. I suspect this may only be the beginning and maybe I need to try to encourage them, strongly, toward a cheaper activity? How much is this likely to lead to to? Anyone here have children in ice skating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 I would be up front with the kids that the activity will continue only so long as it remains affordable, and that the regular/full price is too expensive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet2ndchance Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 They can continue to ice skate for fun if they really enjoy it. If they are truly gifted at ice skating and want to compete, opporunities to continue training will come and some sort of agreement can be worked out to keep it affordable. Just hanging around the rink and letting them skate for fun can bring those opportunites if a coach happens to see them skate and sees talent. Personally, I would just pay for lessons for as long as they are affordable and if they want to keep skating, let them skate for fun after that. If it does become a thing for them, let the opportunities come to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sk8ermaiden Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 I figure skated growing up, and the only friends with more expensive activities were the horseback riders, with gymnasts coming in close as well. It's a VERY expensive sport if they want to continue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 It gets very expensive. By the time we moved away from a rink, my dd's boots and blades were $500. Add in lessons, free style time, etc and it gets very expensive quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wathe Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Competitive figure skating is extremely expensive. But recreational skating can be quite cheap. Group lessons around here are very affordable. Recreational family skate times cost $2.75 per person, or $7 per family for 90 minutes. My kids like skating as a rec activity and don't have any figure skating dreams so for us it's a fun, affordable family activity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Well, if you're just doing it for fun, it can be very cheap depending on where you live! We live in an area that often has snow 5 months out of the year, with free outdoor ice rinks. Once the kids had their skates (which we always got second-hand) and they had a few lessons, they'd just skate on their own with their friends for fun. A couple of of my kids were on community ed hockey teams and they had fun with that too. (very low key) Once they learned how to play, they just played pick-up games on their own with whoever was around. In the end, my kids preferred hockey skates because of the ankle support. We never had to pay for rink use, and skates and equipment were always second-hand. I'm sure it's totally different if you're thinking of doing it competitively! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wathe Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 43 minutes ago, J-rap said: Well, if you're just doing it for fun, it can be very cheap depending on where you live! We live in an area that often has snow 5 months out of the year, with free outdoor ice rinks. Once the kids had their skates (which we always got second-hand) and they had a few lessons, they'd just skate on their own with their friends for fun. A couple of of my kids were on community ed hockey teams and they had fun with that too. (very low key) Once they learned how to play, they just played pick-up games on their own with whoever was around. In the end, my kids preferred hockey skates because of the ankle support. We never had to pay for rink use, and skates and equipment were always second-hand. I'm sure it's totally different if you're thinking of doing it competitively! Yes, the lake and local outdoor rinks are free here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 My sister from Minnesota is visiting us right now and laughing at our indoor rinks. She says "remember when they would just toss us out on the ice, which was actually a frozen over lake, and tell us to have at it! No helmets even!" LOL....she said a few other things, all in jest of course...But yes, living here, we cannot just walk down the street and ice skate at the park. The park next to where my grandparents used to live even had an indented area that the town would fill up with water every year so it could freeze over the kids could skate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 51 minutes ago, J-rap said: Well, if you're just doing it for fun, it can be very cheap depending on where you live! We live in an area that often has snow 5 months out of the year, with free outdoor ice rinks. Once the kids had their skates (which we always got second-hand) and they had a few lessons, they'd just skate on their own with their friends for fun. A couple of of my kids were on community ed hockey teams and they had fun with that too. (very low key) Once they learned how to play, they just played pick-up games on their own with whoever was around. In the end, my kids preferred hockey skates because of the ankle support. We never had to pay for rink use, and skates and equipment were always second-hand. I'm sure it's totally different if you're thinking of doing it competitively! 6 minutes ago, wathe said: Yes, the lake and local outdoor rinks are free here too. opps..tried to put these quotes in above post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 4 hours ago, Janeway said: The children really wanted to learn how to ice skate and some were offered for free about thirty minutes from here so I took them. They loved it! At the end of these lessons, the rink offered half priced lessons for a period of time. We are doing that as half price is great! I only have to pay $70 for the next 5 lessons for the two of them together. However, I can see on the price sheet that after this, it will be more like over $100 a month per child. I suspect this may only be the beginning and maybe I need to try to encourage them, strongly, toward a cheaper activity? How much is this likely to lead to to? Anyone here have children in ice skating? what if you didn't do lessons? Here a mom rents the rink, we all pay skate fees per child, we go, we have fun, kids skate. My kids didn't even take lessons. The end. No extra stuff but the joy of being on the ice. ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 23 minutes ago, BlsdMama said: what if you didn't do lessons? Here a mom rents the rink, we all pay skate fees per child, we go, we have fun, kids skate. My kids didn't even take lessons. The end. No extra stuff but the joy of being on the ice. ? No, I cannot skate and my children can barely stand on the ice. They have made a lot of progress. But I suspect between the free lessons they already had and the seriously discounted lessons they have this month, it is cheaper than renting and playing. I just wish they still had a home school ice skating program around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenDaisies Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 Competitive figure skating is very expensive. If I had known then what I know now, I would have pushed my daughter in a different direction. Group classes only get you so far. They exist to teach basics, but mostly to connect you with a private coach. You will need a private coach to compete. Private coaches choreograph programs and you can’t compete without a prgoram. Kids can start competing almost immediately. Private lessons here average $20-30 for a 20 minute lesson, and I imagine that is on the low end of the national average. My daughter started with one coach and one lesson a week. This past year she competed at qualifying regionals and had 4 coaches and was doing ten private lessons a week. Add ice time at roughly $10 per 40 minutes. My daughter skates about 10-15 hours a week, and that is on the low end. She can do all the jumps and spins to pass the highlest levels on USFS, but she is not competitive at regionals. The kids who are most competitive at my rink probably skate 3 times that much and spend well over 3 times what I pay. You will also have to pay for boots, blades, costumes, testing fees and competition fees. I often consider pulling her out, but if I give in now, I would have wasted so much time and money. I at least want her to pass all her USFS tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 I'd do lessons for as long as they enjoy it, then let them go to open skate and have fun. If they decide to get serious and competitive, cross that bridge when the time comes. I'd just let them enjoy learning to skate for now. My middle two kids were competitive short track speedskaters (hence my username!). I skated masters short track, and my youngest skated in Special Olympics. My younger dd (20yo) still does short track, and is actually transferring universities this summer to be able to skate with a better organization. As someone else pointed out, boots and blades are crazy expensive, especially for my older son. He seemed to need new boots every three months, and his growth is finally slowing down now at almost 17. Skinsuits are another big expense, because they're super high tech and ISU/US Speedskating requires them to be made of cut resistant fabric. Add in the cost of helmets, cut resistant gloves and the special sharpening equipment needed for short track blades, and costs of traveling to meets across the country, and it's crazy. I often wished my kids had just gone into figure skating, because it would have been cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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