For the past three winters, my wife and I have been teaching my two boys, ages 5 and 7, how to downhill ski. We are avid skiers and want to pass on the joy of snow skiing to our boys. Over the last three ski seasons, we’ve learned quite a bit about keeping our boys happy while they learn to ski.
By following these simple rules, your kids should progress quickly and learn to love skiing.
1. Ski when the weather’s nice. The first season, skiing should be done when the weather is decent. You don’t want to subject your kids to extremely cold or wet conditions. The first few mountain experiences should be fun. If they’re cold or wet they’ll associate skiing with being miserable and they won’t want to go again. This may mean you don’t take your kids skiing until spring conditions arrive later in the season.
2. Don’t force your kids to ski. If they don’t want to hit the slopes, let them horse around in the snow first. Build a snowman or have a snowball fight. The first season we were constantly negotiating with our boys telling them we’ll spend a half hour building a snowman then we’ll spend an hour skiing. By the second season they weren’t interested in snowmen anymore, they wanted to ski.
3. Hot chocolate breaks work like magic. We stop for hot chocolate breaks at least once each ski day. The kids associate this treat with skiing and it gets them even more excited to hit the slopes knowing they’ll end up with a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
4. Play games while your skiing. Play follow the leader or make airplane noises. Have your kids try to spray you with snow when they stop. If you make skiing about having fun and not about learning to ski they’ll progress much quicker.
4. Avoid putting your kids into ski school. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but I have found most ski schools don’t teach much skiing to new skiers. Obviously if you don’t know how to ski yourself you’ll have to put the kids in ski school, but you’ll spend a lot of money and may not get much return.
Ski schools, can be good for kids that have a couple seasons under their belt because they’ll be skiing with other kids, but for new skiers, I wouldn’t recommend it. Let me explain:
We put my youngest into ski school when he was 4. The instructors worked with him on a hill that was nearly flat. Even if his skis were pointed straight down the hill, he would barely move. They tried to teach him how to stop by having him make a wedge with his skis, but making a wedge is difficult when your basically standing still.
I watched this until the lesson was over. When I picked him up from ski school he was frustrated and didn’t want to do anything associated with skiing. The instructor said he needed more time in the ski school.
I disagreed and took him up the lift where he could generate some speed. On his first run down the bunny hill, he was able to turn, stop and do all the things he couldn’t do in class. He was beaming with pride.
He simply needed a steeper slope. It’s much easier to make wedges and turns if you have some speed. We waved to the ski instructor as we sped by her.
5. Have your kids ski with other kids. I’ve already touched on this, but doing this is a great idea and will improve they’re skiing dramatically. When they’re with their peers they’re having fun and trying to keep up with one another. If you have timid skiers putting them with more aggressive skiing kids will usually solve the problem.
6. Show your kids that it’s OK and even fun to fall. During our first season my oldest was pretty nervous about falling. My older brother alleviated that fear when he intentionally fell in front of my boys. They laughed and laughed and even commented that they were better skiers than my brother.
It immediately took the fear of falling out of the equation. I still intentionally, (sometimes unintentionally) fall in front of my kids. It never ceases to make them laugh hysterically. The more dramatic you make the fall the better.
If you follow these 6 rules and have some patience your kids will become excellent and eager skiers.
By: Chris G.
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