Ice-skating vs dancing

Not me, DD. Probably next year once she's settled into school (so mid-year).
Has anyone taken ice-skating lessons? How much to skates cost? Any other costs (other than the lessons)?
Tell me about dancing... Apart from costs of lessons what else do you have to pay for?
Sorry to make it all about money, but this will be in addition to team sports which she can start in a couple of years. This is a bit of fun and I don't want to pay a fortune for a bit of fun, KWIM?
Also does anyone know anything much about the 'culture' of these environments? I know some ballet companies can make girls quite body-conscious... is skating the same? Have people felt welcomed into the communities? It probably depends on the group you join?
TIA for any advice - especially those who've done both. I'd be interested to hear your comparisons!

:bump:

Ice skating can be expensive. And dangerous depending who's on the ice. For a pair of skates your looking at cost of skates, protective padding for DD, lesson prices, warmer and thicker clothes for wearing on the ice, skate maintainance eg sharpening and replacing blades blade covers etc...

As for dancing have you thought of calesthenics? Great for flexibility and teamwork and character building. IMO most girls who do calesthenics depending on the coach and where its held don't really have problems with self image. My SIL is a bigger girl and she used to do calesthenics. Which incorporates dance and routine with gymnastics. It also teaches great posture whilst keeping DD fit. My SIL now is a coach for a team. She loves it and always has. She said the costs aren't as high as something like ice skating. Just uniforms and the occasional costume...

Hope that helps xx

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I've only done ice skating and dancing for fun, so won't comment there (as I've only paid for admission to the rink, and for lessons for dancing - and you can find out those costs already!!)

But from my experience with other similar activities (gymnastics, netball, springboard/platform diving, softball, athletics, etc) the main cost was generally buying the different uniforms, and then actually getting to and from all the different practices and meets/matches, and associated costs (paying for busses, meals, makeup (for gymnastics) etc - which all get more intense if you get serious about it.

Ang "getting serious" can start young! By the time I was about 6, if I wanted to continue with gymnastics with the squad I was with, it was going to be 3+ trainings a week, plus meets ... and most of the girls by the time they were 12 were training 5+ days a week. And there were injuries ... I never broke anything, but plenty of the girls did ...

With netball, I was in 3 different teams (one with girls from my primary school which stuck together after graduation, an inter-school one with my highschool, and a local one through my church) meaning that I had trainings most nights plus three matches every weekend (two on Saturday and one on Sunday).

And diving (which I started when I had to drop out of two of my netball teams) was three practices and (two wet, one dry) every week, with competitions every couple of weeks.

Almost all my friends who did competitive swimming were at the pool every morning before school, meaning their parents dropped them off at the train station around 5am, for them to get to the pool in town and do 30 mins warm ups and 60 minutes training with time for a shower and change before catching the train to school ...

Point being that you might want to find out now how serious the ice skating and dancing might get in upcoming years ...

And if you have an ambitious or competitive little girl on your hands, you might want to find a club that has a more social focus, rather than one which has an expectation that they will be competing seriously in the near future ...

Particularly if you think she will want to do other co-curricular activities (choir, band, art, etc) as well.

Activities are awesome - and both ice skating and dancing are wonderful fun, and she can make great friends, get wonderful exercise, and of course learn new skills and have a great time!

But I'd be picking the team and the activity really carefully - which is what you seem to be doing :D

HTH

Thank you so much for your thoughts, girls.
Lysndan, I haven't thought at all about calisthenics... Haven't heard very much about it at all! I might look into it. Hadn't thought of the other people on the ice either! I know the ice is hard and falls will happen, but injuries happen in any sport I guess. But the ice does tend to accommodate losers with more speed than skill... That's food for thought.
Peanutter, I have absolutely no intention of sending her to any sport 5 days/week. Not unless she begs me for it, in which case I don't think we'd manage anything else (and I wouldn't mind offering other things like musical instruments later on as well as the sports). I really like the idea of team sports but only the variety I did with one training and one game/week. I'm not hardcore enough to do more than that!
At this stage though it is just that she's been asking to do dance/ballet for ages but we haven't really had the spare money to send her yet. We watched the skaters at the rink yesterday while at the shops and she was really keen to learn how to skate. I asked what she'd prefer (dance or skating) and she totally surprised me by saying skating! Probably it will pass though. And it sounds like dancing could be cheaper. And of course, it'll be warmer, LOL!

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I have absolutely no intention of sending her to any sport 5 days/week. Not unless she begs me for it, in which case I don't think we'd manage anything else (and I wouldn't mind offering other things like musical instruments later on as well as the sports). I really like the idea of team sports but only the variety I did with one training and one game/week. I'm not hardcore enough to do more than that!

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Absolutely - and that's how I feel too.

Unless one of our kids is just a prodigy with some sport or activity that they love, which they might end up doing as a career - otherwise we'll be aiming more for something which is just once or twice a week.

My point was more that some activities seem nice and simple at the start, but depending on the club you get involved in, they end up being really consuming, and it can be hard for the child to understand why they won't be going up to the next level etc, if you're not happy to continue progressing them at the rate of their peers ...

So with our kids, we'll be sussing out not just the activity, but also the club, to see whether their 8yos, 10yos, 12yos are still happily training once a week and playing once a week, or whether in a few years there will be a much greater expectation ...

In comparison to my gymnastics, netball etc, my brothers did Vickick (later Auskick) from a very young age, and it was NEVER more than once a week. That is much more what we'd be looking at for our kids - something which can fit in with school and family and other fun activities.

I hope you find something ideal!

:)

Cost wise I honestly think they would be much of a muchness depending on how invloved your DD gets with the sport.

Dancing costs would vary greatly depending on the style but no matter what there would be costumes, dances shoes (practise and performance) and they would need replacing maybe twice a year depending on how heavy on her feet your DD is. There may be registration costs as well.

I did ballroom dancing competitively and I would wear 2 styles of shoes tbars for Latin and court shoes for Modern and New Vogue. My comp shoes would usually last 4-6 months then when they wore out or were too scuffy they'd become practise shoes and I'd get new shoes for comps. Costumes were hugely expensiveand I'd get a new latin and Mod/N.V costume maybe yearly? I'd have 3x 1hr lessons a week plus practise class. We also trained every day so there were costs of meals etc. For comps you also had to pay for registration, and if we went interstate there were all the costs associated with that.

We were pretty full on though.

Its like anything people always tell me owning horses is expensive but I have not found it to be too bad but then my boys are just for hacking around on the farm not for showing or cross country etc.

HTH a bit

Nae x

I totally see your point, Peanutter. Must be a difficult thing to suss out before you start don't you think? Probably likewise the attitude/culture of the group. No doubt that changes with each influx of kids that passes through. I can only hope in whatever she chooses to do she's surrounded by a supportive, friendly mob rather than a bunch of whackos. I wish the same for your kids.
Nae, wow. Thanks for that! Stupidly I hadn't really thought about the wearing out of shoes in dance. Only costumes (which I understand can be very expensive) but not multiple pairs of shoes a year! Eeek. Ah well, we'll have to see how we go. Thanks for your input.