 Poster: A snowHead
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Long story short, we're doing a season at the moment with our almost 1 year old while I work remotely with the occasional day off and weekends.
Location is Kaprun, my wife and I share child minding duties in the mornings then I start work at 11am (working remotely), weekends we occasionally have a childminder so we can both hit the slopes. It's working out really well, we've been here before for a season and other trips before our bucko came along. It's bliss and we came with realistic expectations of a couple of early morning hours on the slopes then a day of work and child minding. The only negative is the price of accommodation but we've been lucky with apartments so far.
We're already looking ahead to the following years and would love some advice from the SH folks on two topics!
(1) any advice for accommodation options in Austria for longer periods? We'll have had jump four times before our trip is over, we got some discounts when booking longer term stay where available and booking early but the price is not sustainable for future years.
(2) Education when our son starts primary school in 4-5 years time... I've caught up on a number of old threads (11-12 year old threads) and read some interesting things about France and the obligation to offer education to kids. And also the post about an arrangement with a school in Les Arcs that takes in 3-4 seasonaire kids from January to Easter. Sounds amazing! Has anyone experience in doing this in Austria? Also would love to hear more about that arrangement in France and how to do it, we've never been to the French Alps, always Austria, Canada and the US. If it means getting to live our winters in the Alps while my son gets an education and I continue to work I'll consider anywhere in the Alps 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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How are you getting around the 90 in 180 day regulations? Does "working from home" even allow that?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@JudgeMent4l, Irish Passport?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Irish passport, EU citizen. I can register here for work and company will also support it. Having said that we arrived in January and will have left before 90 days so no need for me to register this year
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Ah!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@shredder,
Try asking the Tignes Seasonnaires 2022 group on Facebook - plenty of Brit seasonnaires on there with kids.
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Just telling my OH about what you are doing as we sit here with our newborn and 1 year old upstairs sleeping. No advice, but sounds amazing, and we would really love to do something like that, just don’t have the guts and would keep making excuses. A month in France in the summer is as far as our current ambition stretches.
Please update as you go, or do a podcast about it or something.
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Try asking the Tignes Seasonnaires 2022 group on Facebook - plenty of Brit seasonnaires on there with kids.
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Awesome will look that up thanks!
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Just telling my OH about what you are doing as we sit here with our newborn and 1 year old upstairs sleeping. No advice, but sounds amazing, and we would really love to do something like that, just don’t have the guts and would keep making excuses. A month in France in the summer is as far as our current ambition stretches.
Please update as you go, or do a podcast about it or something.
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We'll be in that situation next year so fingers crossed we can keep it up with a 4 month old and an almost 2 year old this time next year. Really enjoying and appreciating what we have this year, it's not like a ski holiday but it is nice to have it at your doorstep and enjoy it in the early mornings and weekends. It feels like it'll be sustainable until our son hits primary school age, really would love to continue doing it and I think short term education in another country/culture & language will be really beneficial at the early stages of school. Secondary school is a different ball game I'm sure but not thinking that far ahead.
We have done a season here before, which helped with location, knowing some people around here and just being more comfortable in our surroundings. We knew we wanted to do it again after our son was born so one of the things we did 18 months ago was a 'futurespective' it really helped me and my OH understand where potential problems were, put any actions into action and align on the why. It really planted a seed for us very early on and we'll do one again over the summer.
We used the 'sailboat' futurespective: https://metroretro.io/blog/what-is-a-futurespective. Highly recommend it, and you might be surprised that the pros outweigh the cons
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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No plan survives first contact with the enemy and you might find that your kid hates the snow 
Being serious though, I can guarantee that in 4 years time your plans might have changed somewhat.
Once your kid makes friends at school it becomes harder to take them away from that environment. You can bet they will let you know their displeasure too!
I offer all kinds of bribes to mine to move and there is zero chance of it happening.
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No plan survives first contact with the enemy and you might find that your kid hates the snow
Being serious though, I can guarantee that in 4 years time your plans might have changed somewhat.
Once your kid makes friends at school it becomes harder to take them away from that environment. You can bet they will let you know their displeasure too!
I offer all kinds of bribes to mine to move and there is zero chance of it happening.
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100% agree with all of the above. I find joy in planning though and while plans may be useless planning is essential... 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| shredder wrote: |
Long story short, we're doing a season at the moment with our almost 1 year old while I work remotely with the occasional day off and weekends.
Location is Kaprun, my wife and I share child minding duties in the mornings then I start work at 11am (working remotely), weekends we occasionally have a childminder so we can both hit the slopes. It's working out really well, we've been here before for a season and other trips before our bucko came along. It's bliss and we came with realistic expectations of a couple of early morning hours on the slopes then a day of work and child minding. The only negative is the price of accommodation but we've been lucky with apartments so far. |
Sounds great, we're gonna be in Kaprun on Friday for a week with our 4 and 7 year olds and had been planning a month or 2 stay this season, but that's now gonna be next season...
Are either of you working on the mountains/ locally and meet others in similar situation or can it be a little isolated?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Sounds great, we're gonna be in Kaprun on Friday for a week with our 4 and 7 year olds and had been planning a month or 2 stay this season, but that's now gonna be next season...
Are either of you working on the mountains/ locally and meet others in similar situation or can it be a little isolated?
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Curious what your school plans are with your 4 and 7 year olds?
I'm working remotely, I haven't met anyone in a similar situation but time is limited for that socializing I guess. I work from the apartment but there are working hubs a little further out which would help expanding the local network... We have some local friends from a previous season but it's once in a couple of weeks we see them (and they don't ski/board)
I wouldn't say it's isolating though, sure the mornings I go out on my own for a few hours but it feels like a pre work workout. The weekends then we try organize bigger days together and a babysitter. In comparison to previous times without a kid it's definitely harder to socialize and make friends but time is limited anyway!
If you're here next season give me a shout, we're in Kaprun until Saturday then on to Mayrhofen to meet some holidaying friends
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Curious what your school plans are with your 4 and 7 year olds?
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Ha, not entirely sure! Depends what happens. We maybe able to agree with the school to take them out for a month or a term ( its a mildly hippy school, sort of like wardorf/ forest school), or extend on Christmas break, or possibly use it as the break to move them to a different school ( basically take them out of school and say we're home schooling for a couple of months).
From observing primary school so far and experience through lockdowns etc i'm not worried at all about academic progress, as we can provide them far more in depth teaching in a shorter time frame, just due to class logistics and sizes ( kids are in school for 6 hrs a day but after all the time around organising a class, breaks, to and fros they get very little actual teaching time, at primary anyway). I'd be more concerned on the socialising aspect for children and can see its increasingly important the older they get. We campervan road tripped the US for 5 months when ours were 2 and 4 and it wasnt an issue then at all, although they were very happy when met other kids at camp grounds. But last 2 years have definitely seen the importance of socialising them helps their progression and general coping with life and they really start to miss it other a while ( ie lockdowns...)
We also looked previously at various international schools in different countries we were toying with moving to, many places seem to have fairly decent ones, private and cost £ thou obviously. If we were planning a longer term stay then I'd prob choose location based on where international type schools were, many I believe accept kids for 3 or 6 month stints.
I'm always curious on the social side as I work from home myself and obviously an office/ local job is a key socializing opportunity and way to meet new local people.
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You know it makes sense.
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I would definitely take advantage of your situation to raise bilingual children. For us that meant dropping them in a French public school at age 4 and 6 with no French! They were bilingual in 6 months...
Whether it's French, German, Spanish, Italian...doesnt' really matter. But being bilingual is a gift you can give them.
I would not really worry about the quality of the public school up until about age 10. I went to a "not so great" public school in the U.S., and my theory has always been that the real learning and education takes place at home, or at least following the parents' example.
The advantage to a public school is you will meet lots of people in your community that way. Not always easy as a newcomer, expat or not.
Going back and forth might be trickier now than it used to be, but we do have friends who spend summers in the UK and school years in France (and vice versa) so that might be the way to go.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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For us that meant dropping them in a French public school at age 4 and 6 with no French!
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One of my daughters in law was dropped into a fairly rough French comprehensive in Provence, at 13, with scarcely any French. She is now, of course, trilingual in that she can speak proper French and local uneducated rough comprehensive style Provencal. Largely unintelligible even to her mother, who is a qualified interpreter in English/German/French. Giving your kids that sort of international experience is a fantastic gift.
I spoke to a teacher colleague of my daughter's, who had dropped a 6 year old into a Chinese school - said he was bilingual in six months. I was astonished - and impressed.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| pam w wrote: |
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For us that meant dropping them in a French public school at age 4 and 6 with no French!
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One of my daughters in law was dropped into a fairly rough French comprehensive in Provence, at 13, with scarcely any French. She is now, of course, trilingual in that she can speak proper French and local uneducated rough comprehensive style Provencal. Largely unintelligible even to her mother, who is a qualified interpreter in English/German/French. Giving your kids that sort of international experience is a fantastic gift.
I spoke to a teacher colleague of my daughter's, who had dropped a 6 year old into a Chinese school - said he was bilingual in six months. I was astonished - and impressed. |
The way kids learn language is very different from the way we "olds" do. The capacity to just absorb it unconciously disappears around age 9-11, I think. My wife learned a good portion of her French in primary school, whereas I had to learn it at age 40. Trust me, I felt like a dolt -- and still do -- around the rest of my family...though I consider myself a French speaker, I'll never have the fluidity that they all do.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks Pasigal and pam_w for the insights, very encouraging and great to hear that it's generally positive results for the kids. I feel the French system is suited towards this bilingual approach with short stints in a primary school in a different country.
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We also looked previously at various international schools in different countries we were toying with moving to, many places seem to have fairly decent ones, private and cost £ thou obviously. If we were planning a longer term stay then I'd prob choose location based on where international type schools were, many I believe accept kids for 3 or 6 month stints.
I'm always curious on the social side as I work from home myself and obviously an office/ local job is a key socializing opportunity and way to meet new local people.
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Did you find any international schools around the Kaprun area or a school near a ski area? I saw a couple of them but they were in Salzburg and Vienna. I haven't heard of anyone doing short school stints in Austria much like they do in France.
There's a term 'wokaction' on working remotely and combining travel, good article here on it:
https://www.ttr.tirol/innovation-und-inspiration/workation
In Kaprun the nearest co working place is in Niedernsill and there are others within reach like Mittersill and Saalfelden. It might be a great way to network:
https://pinzhub.at/
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FAQ
