To celebrate the Winter Olympics, the upcoming ski week holiday in our school district, and inspired by Mother of All Trips‘ ski week, this week is all about skiing.
I share the ambition to get my family on skis. Since meeting my husband, I have put on skis once. In my postpartum identity crisis reflection, I realized I had spent a lot of time on skis; I had great memories of my ski trips; and skiing was one of my favorite ways to explore the outdoors.
Before a family, I was on the slopes every winter I could afford.
Before you think I could go tip to tip with Olympic hopefuls, I am a true blue skier. That means sticking largely to the intermediate trails (blue square in U.S.) I have been fortunate to ski a few olympic runs (the giant slalom runs are usually blue) as well as ski with competitive skiers who pushed my limits.
Pushing my limits by putting me on a snowboard.
But, I didn’t start skiing until I was 12. (Heck, I didn’t even see real snow until I was seven or eight.) Watching kids shorter than my ski poles zip down the slopes, I saw the advantages of starting early. That is why I am dreaming of getting my daughter on skis and watching her squeal with joy as she snowplows down the bunny slope.
Mirielle all suited up to try skiing.
Last year we tried and failed. We, included my brother who was a competitive skier and still is an extreme skier. Not that we were looking to get Mirielle on the K-22 her first day, but, I was not expecting her to burst into tears when we snapped her boots into the bindings. Our tactics to get her interested failed. She preferred to dig in the snow.
Mirielle's first and only run.
This year, I am going to try again. Her awareness of peers is growing now so visiting a local ski area on President’s Day to watch other little kids learning to ski might help. If that doesn’t increase her interest, I think a few hours of Olympic coverage will.
As a true blue skier, I want to motivate her and enable her, but prefer a more competent instructor teach her. As with kids programs at many resorts, most ski schools start lessons at four years old. Is it an insurance thing? A potty training thing? Why so late? Vermont and Maine ski areas have a good selection of group lesson programs for three year olds.
While I prefer to try something close to home first, we will probably take a weekend trip to a neighboring state. The upside is my husband agreed to take a ski lesson. It will be his first time on skis so he is starting at the same place as Mirielle but a few decades older. My dog loves the ski slopes too, so this year skiing might become a family affair.
Here’s dreaming….
It’s like we’re on the same wavelength or something. I just went today to outfit my son for his rented skis. He has finally agreed to try out the ski thing this weekend. He’s stubborn, so I didn’t even bother until he was game.(Too many traumas on the side of the soccer field). Now I just have to sign him up for some private lessons. I know that’s what would work best for him and me. Will report my findings after this weekend.
Good luck! I haven’t written my post yet about getting my family on skis – we didn’t have a great deal of success with Teddy. In fact, he got kicked out of the ski school group program. We were told that he had to have private lessons.
So don’t feel bad.
I LOVE the pictures of you on the mountain – you go girl!
Once the Bub is a bit bigger, a ski weekend is definitely on the horizon!
Mountain Threads: New Skiwear Rental Option in Colorado | Backpack to Buggy // Feb 11, 2010 at 3:11 pm
[...] ran into this problem when my brother and I took Mirielle up to Squaw Valley last March. Winter clothes had been replaced with spring sets at discount and department stores. The [...]
4 is “so late”? Ha ha! That’s funny !
I think many start at 4 because even at that age it can be a miserable, frustrating experience for a young child. (As you have learned & your pic shows). Also very hard to teach reluctant little ones.
Relax. You have plenty of time and the MOST important thing is that kids have FUN!
We’ve found warm spring T-shirt skiing is an ideal time for little ones. Do it in small doses with lots of other fun snow play included. Week days are better than weekends.
Schedule the lesson when they are freshest ( not needing a snack or nap) so they are strongest & most enthusiastic to handle the challenge.
Usually the tiny young ones who are good at skiing are ones that are regulars ALL winter long or live in the area ( or someone on staff’s kid). They have taken a ton of ski classes regularly & often the whole family spends the winter on the slopes.
They are deeply immersed in skiing!
You can can’t expect a child who goes once to be the same, any more than you would expect her to be fluent in a foreign language immediately in the same way one who has always been immersed in it.
Little ones learn best by self initiated exploration, fun and short joyful bursts of practice of challenging things making steady progress over time.
Every year will get easier & she will get better & better. Before you know it, she will be out skiing you!
.-= soultravelers3´s last blog ..10 Best Tips For Family Friendly Travel! =-.
I began teaching my 9 yr old son to ski when he was nearly 4. As soultravelers3 said, go for short periods of time in warmer weather. Don’t go on the busy weekend days (too much waiting around in the clothes/weird boots), try for Sunday evening, or a weekday. I also prefer quieter days so I don’t have to worry about out of control folks running my kids down by accident. Kids can be erratic skiers.
Near kindergarten is when they start to bring all the concepts together of what they are doing and how to control it all which is why I think they don’t do lessons as a group so many places under 4. They don’t even charge for lift tickets until like 6 or 7 and that is a sure sign they don’t expect kids to go all day or even near that long or they would charge.
My daughter started learning when she was 2, she started earlier because we were up at Whiteface at the learn to ski side and a busload of day care kids her age showed up for lessons, so we rented her stuff, put her on the magic carpet and she tried it out. No problem standing or going (ds had spaghetti legs for a awhile), it was the concept of stopping or turning that was absent (think of how a child that age would ride a bike……). Last year (pre-K) she started to get it all but the hills scared her (even though she went down fine, go figure). This year she finally gets it all but still does not like being too cold and likes to go in about every hour if I don’t have water/snacks. Look for snowmobiles, ski patrol with trays, snowboarders crashing, the snowcat, Waldo, whatever it takes. My son skis everything w/ me & will be better then me in about 5 minutes, but he only had his first real group lessons this year at Okemo (fantastic place for kids skiing).
Getting your own equipment helps save time/waiting around and there are ways to do that on the cheap as well if you find an October ski swap in your area. But its a gradual project. Don’t be afraid to put your poles aside and take a few bunny trails with her, tell her you are like a the mama duck and the baby duck and then make some pizza slices ; )