age

One of the things I love the most about skating is that kids can progress at their own rate (at least theoretically) with few restrictions as to age.

That is extremely hard to explain when dealing with our hockey culture. If a child is seven, they play eight and under. It doesn't matter if they can't skate, or if they happen to be the next Sidney Crosby, they are eight and under with few opportunities to play any other level.

The same applies to our education system now - skipping grades or holding back is so frowned upon that as a rule, if one is seven, one is in Grade two. You may find the rare eight year old in Grade two, but no longer will someone be ten in that classroom. A ten year old who is at the grade two level would be classified as special and put back with all of the rest of the ten year olds.

Why do I care? Well, I have a seven year old who acts ten (most of the time) and can't find a book in her classroom at her level. I have a five year old who is on the cusp of becoming a true "school girl" and moving from the magical "preschool" age into that strange independent animal. They aren't fitting in with the age restrictions and it makes life tougher for them.

Believe me, I do my best to let the girls socialize with people their own age. I drive them to various activities in three different towns regularly to encourage a broad spectrum of friends. We travel further for special events, and they make friends there too.

But I still find that the elder one hangs out mostly with the ten year olds, and the younger one hangs out with the seven year olds, and we make that work. Until some arbitrary age requirement comes into it and the girls are separated from their friends again.

I guess it might just be a maturity thing - the people that I prefer to spend time with are generally older, or at least act it. I have little time for the women my age who haven't got their act together, which may be why my social circle is small. As an adult, I find that the people I hang out with have kids of the same age (approximately) and are just as busy as I am.

So truly, age is just a number, especially in our house - and that means that we are definitely moving to a different stage of life as the kids grow. This has been a great stage too - I'm not looking forward to spending less time at home to keep the girls busy, but maybe I'll run into more people that I have things in common with while we're out there.