Roller skating was one of the various things we did today. We did lots of workbooks, and spelling practice, but we also went to our favourite skate meet. It’s nice to see familiar faces, if they attend, and it’s a not insignificant part of our homeschool Physical Education quota. However, it’s mostly just satisfying to see my kids skating around the rink when it wasn’t that long ago they couldn’t skate at all.

If there are any autonomous elements to our structured homeschool, it’s roller skating. Nobody taught them how to do it. (In the beginning, one of them wasn’t even keen to attend.) They just put on the skates, and clung to the sides of the rink with their adorable death grips. With determination, they pluckily kept trying and trying – even if they fell down. I didn’t make them do it. They chose to do it. Most impressively, they succeeded.

Roller Skating Power

It’s the same with most subjects. Your best subjects are always the ones to which you feel a connection, or voluntarily elected to study. Some school subjects will forever be the mandatory I-hate-Maths or English-grammar-sucks. It’s good to throw the field open for some fun elective choices, just so you can remember: “You’ve always had the power… [you] had to learn it for [yourself].”

Ruby red skates for roller skating.