Teaching children how to skigreat fun, but loads of patience neededFor a parent, teaching children how to ski is rewarding and frustrating in equal measure.Rewarding because of the pride you feel when they manage their first few turns. Young children learn how to ski by copying. When they’re small, they’ll understand making a slice of pizza shape with their skis to form a snowplough. It's quite a sight to be trundling along with your child whilst calling out, “Pizza!, More pizza!” to the bemused glances of other skiers. Get a good start with some ski lessonsEach of our children started with both proper lessons from a qualified instructor that we reinforced by taking them out on the nursery slopes with us.Until your child is able to stop and turn, and if you’re a competent skier yourself, you’ll most likely be skiing very closely with them. We’ve tried four approaches over the years with varying success: Tandem snowplough
It is easy to demonstrate what they’re supposed to do by completely over-emphasising the movements. Your child then feels what’s going on. Our youngest would happily chant, “Down on the right…down on the left” with each turn. A ski harness By your side holding onto your horizontal ski poles or a longer pole Ski instructors often use a longer pole on gentle slopes when giving beginner ski instruction to small children, as in the photo below.
This always caused great fits of giggles with our children. On a gentle slope it isn’t difficult to do – especially if you have twin-tip skis. You’re able to see exactly what your child is (or isn’t) doing and he’ll do the right thing because he’s following you. The gadget that makes learning how to ski so much easier
Shouldn't I leave teaching kids to ski to an instructor?This might all sound like a lot of hard work – and it is – but the learning how to ski phase doesn’t last long and is far more effective when you take your children out to practice what they've learned in their ski lessons.Even as three-year-olds, our children could handle very gentle slopes after a few days. Yes, there were a few times when we had to speed in front of them to catch them when they forgot how to stop. Did anyone call, “Pizza!”? |
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Thanks for the great website - very handy. We are planning our first ski trip for us and our 5 kids!Chrisna
Skiing tips for families. Written by an English couple who love to ski and play in the snow with their children.
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