??? Hockey ???

My homeschooled, skating princess's skating coach says we need to find time for the princess to practice on her own. Fortunately, there is a small, private college just down the road that offers open skate every weekday. The price is right: $3 for the hour. We headed over there last week and arrived in time for 40 minutes of open skate. A dad and his adorable, heavily padded four year old son were the only other folks on the ice. They were "playing" hockey. I watched it all from the sidelines -- I don't know how to skate. With 10 minutes to go in the hour-long open skate session, my girl showed interest in what they were doing and the dad generously offered my girl an extra puck and one of the arena employees loaned her a hockey stick. And she "went to town".

There's even more hand-eye and foot-eye coordination work in hockey, more motor planning. She was exhausted after 40 minutes on the ice and was famished, even though she'd eaten just before going onto the ice.