Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

If you have ever visited this mall, you would definitely have seen their indoor ice skating rink. I myself have always known about the rink (and watched how the skaters glide, wobble and fall!), but never have I actually gone inside.

Last July, during our trip to Jakarta, I took all three kids to check it out though. For our first time.

It was on a weekday afternoon, and because it was towards the end of the school holiday, it was still rather packed.

(Luckily some schools have apparently started that week, so it wasn’t SUPER crowded!)

The ticket price was slightly higher than usual because it was the school holiday.

They charged Rp 48,000 per child, which worked out to be just about S$7 actually. Skates rental is included AND it was for the first two hours of skating! (Additional hour is charged at just Rp8000/hour)

Definitely worth checking out, I thought!

When compared to ice skating rates here in Singapore, their price is of course much better!

(I read somewhere that ice skating rink at Kallang Leisure Park charges about S$17.50 per adult and S$15 per child, for the first 2 hours, including skates. Someone please let me know if the info is incorrect yeah)

Oh btw.

They do conduct ‘training sessions’ for beginners too.

The fee is Rp90,000 (about S$13) and you’ll have a coach teaching you the basics of ice skating in the first 30 minutes. After that, it’s free and easy ice skating time. The Rp90,000 fee basically covers your first 2 hours of ice skating there. Reasonable, I thought.

I didn’t send Anya and Vai to the ‘training session’ though since I thought it’d be a good experience for the kids if they tried to learn how to ice skate all on their own.

(note: Wilson and I believe that our kids don’t need to always attend ‘classes’ in order for them to ‘learn a skill’. We feel it’s a good thing to let our kids learn the art of working things out for themselves too. If they wish to know how to ice skate ‘properly and seriously’ later on, then of course a lesson from a coach is fine =)

So, to prepare them ‘mentally’, as they put on their skates, I had a chat with them and shared these things :

– That they’d be learning how to ice skate on their own (read: No one would be holding their hands and telling them how/what to do)

– How I learned how to ice skate on my own when I was a teenager. How I wobbled and fell many many times. How I chose to get up and just skate again. And how fun ice skating is when one has finally learned how to glide on ice without falling =)

– How it’s important to never give up even when we feel like giving up, and when things get difficult.

Once the skates were properly worn, they went to the rink together and I watched them from the side (Brie was sleeping in her pram near me).

I saw them wobble and fall.

I saw them get up.

And I saw them trying to walk without losing their balance.

Anya knows how to rollerblade a little bit, so it wasn’t a completely ‘new’ experience for her. After some 15 minutes or so, she could more or less move about on the ice rather confidently (though she still did fall quite a number of times too)

Vai, on the other hand, has yet to learn how to rollerblade. So he slipped, lost his balance and fell on the ice so much more often than Anya did.

After 30 minutes or so, he came to me and said he didn’t want to continue ice skating. He wanted to stop skating. He told me how he’s tired, how he couldn’t skate and how his hands hurt. I talked to him and encouraged him to not give up, but he still was determined to stop skating. And I let him.

Then something interesting happened.

Wilson dropped by from work to meet us, and when I saw him coming, I turned and excitedly said to Vai, ‘OH LOOK!! Daddy’s here! Go! Go back to the rink and let him see how you already learned on your own how to balance yourself on the ice!!’

And guess what?

He went straight to the rink in less than 15 seconds!

AND, he went on and on, and didn’t stop.

[Well, he did come to me – every few minutes or so –  to let me know about what he did or what happened to him, and he’d leave soon after giving me his ‘reports’ =) ]

All in all, we were there for a good three hours! Yes, that’s one EXTRA hour in the rink. And no, I didn’t mind the wait at all =)

I thought it was worth the ‘learning experience’ for them both!

They went all out on their own to the ‘jungle’ full of people much bigger than them. They knew they could’ve been accidentally pushed by others, they knew they would definitely fall down, but it didn’t stop them from moving on, learning and gradually enjoying the session.

Well done, kids! =)

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Here’s a video of them, taken some two hours after they’ve learned how to ice skate on their own:

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Some useful tips to share when you go ice skating there:

– Bring along your gloves and socks

– The shop sells socks and gloves too. Btw, the yellow coloured gloves (sold for about Rp7000 / pair) are all in ‘one size’, and I thought they kinda look like the ones worn by durian sellers =)

– I found it rather cold inside the rink. I’d recommend bringing along an extra layer of warm clothing if you’re going ice skating

– You may want to bring along an extra pair of pants as well for the kids =) If they keep on falling on the ice and on their buttocks, their pants will most likely be rather wet afterwards

– Do NOT lose your admission tickets. And when they say ‘two hour session’, do remember that’s calculated from the time you go in till the time you leave, ie. Stop skating and return skates, etc BEFORE the two hour period is up.

–  Quite a lot of seats available if you’re waiting around for your kids

– Check out their ‘maintenance timings’, ie. Every few hours or so, they’d get everyone off the ice, as they need to ‘sweep’ the ice for about 30 mins

– Avoid school holidays, where possible. It’s super crowded and you’d need to queue for a VERY long time to get your admission tickets