JustinSkates: January 2013

About Justin

Justin divides his time on the ice practicing two different aspects of figure skating.

He currently participates in singles and dance.

He and his ice dance partner, Sara Wilson, plan to compete at the Eastern Sectional Figure Skating Championships in Simsbury, Conn., Nov. 18-22, 2015. The two teenagers will perform at the novice level, which is an advance level in figure skating.

At 19, Justin has been skating on and off for about seven years.

He started taking private figure skating lessons when he was 11 years old. For the most part, the first four years of skating consisted of one lesson a week and about one to two days a week of practice. Occasionally, he took stretches of time off the ice.

His love of the ice expanded to ice dancing in October, 2010, when he and his first ice dance partner set out to compete at the US Junior National Competition.

After spending more than a year on the ice together, though, Justin returned his focus to single skating in November, 2011. The blog post titled, A Glance Back At Sectionals Provides New Direction, tells Justin's story surrounding the decision.

From the beginning, Justin has been home schooled, or more specifically, unschooled, which allows him the freedom to pursue his own interests at his own pace.

Sharing Justin's figure skating journey is a wonderful opportunity to enrich our experience as an unschooling family who is learning all the time.

If you are inspired to follow along with us, please do.

We will share our experiences - the ups and the downs - with lots of heart and humor.

We hope you enjoy!

About Us

When Joe and I were newspaper reporters in our 20s and early 30s, we'd immerse ourselves in a topic, and then write about it. We found that to be one of the most exhilarating things about being a writer.

When we had Justin in our mid-30s, like many parents, our priorities and career goals shifted.

Throughout our journey with Justin, though, one thing has always remained the same: A desire to share our experiences through writing.

So naturally, it appealed to us to start a blog about our time spent in the figure skating world.

While I'm the writer of this blog, I don't hit the publish button without running it by my "subject-matter experts," Justin and Joe. They both help me with blog post ideas, edit suggestions, headlines and more.

Together, we simply want to share our experiences as we continue to make figure skating part of our world.

JustinSkates

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Justin's Double Flip (Video)