 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all, we are going French Alps later this season with now 7 year old and 5 year old. Both skied for first time 2 years back in private lessons.
Option 1: Small ski school for 6 days/week, max 6 children per lesson, 4 hours each morning. Cost is 600 euros
Option 2: Larger ski school for 6 days/week, max 8 children per lesson, 2.5 hours each morning. Cost is 245 Euros. They also offer to keep them for lunch until 2pm daily and this would be 395 euros for week or can do this ad hoc on some days only
Love everything about the smaller ski school but we wonder if the children will likely be too tired to do much with us in the afternoon after 4 hours on the slopes each morning as they are still young.
Second one allows more flexibility - can have them stay for longer morning couple of days which allows us to get full morning on the slopes and other days we spend afternoon with them but I guess my question is whether 2.5hrs daily in larger group is enough? Our ideal would have been 3hours daily in smaller group but not available for our specific dates
Based on your experience with children of similar age, which would you go for?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thinking back to when our daughter was those ages, I am inclined to think the 5 year old would be completely shattered by 4 hours of lessons. S/he might be able to manage a short afternoon play in the snow after a long lunch in the warm and some chill time - but probably not more skiing.
Seven is a harder age to judge, some kids seem inexhaustible at that point but others will flag. With 2.5 hours you would be reasonably sure of getting him/her doing some gentle skiing with the family in the afternoon, but possibly not after 4 hours.
My feeling is that given their age your main aim is ensuring they come away from the holiday feeling skiing is fun, and second aim that however much technical skill they acquire it is sound. They will both advance to out-skiing you soon enough.
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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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It's really hard to give totally relevant advice, as Kids are different, some ski schools are better than others and some Instructors "click" with your Kids better than others.
From a logistic perspective, it would be easier to have them both in the one ski school....but there might be a case to have the younger one doing 2.5 hrs + Lunch and the older one doing the 4 hours.
Where are you going and what are the ski schools, as somebody here might have a view as which way to go?
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Thanks both, completely agree the main aim is that they have fun. We ended up switching to private at the last minute 2 years back because we found an instructor who was excellent with young children. You are also right there is the possibility the seven year old maybe ok but I don't want to exhaust them.
All at one place will be much easier - from a selfish perspective, to allow us to ski a bit more as well.
We are going to Les Arcs and the ski schools are Supreme and Evolution2. Seen very positive recommendations for both so it is down to the group size and duration
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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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| snowwithkids wrote: |
We are going to Les Arcs and the ski schools are Supreme and Evolution2. Seen very positive recommendations for both so it is down to the group size and duration |
I have used both - but not in Les Arcs.
Evo 2 in Tignes/VDI and Supreme in Courchevel....and both were excellent, with Supreme being a little better. The latter would certainly be my choice for the older one, but whether the 5 year old would cope with 4 hours, is a call you will have to make.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@snowwithkids, Kids can be remarkably durable when it comes to skiing. Wife and I, both dry slope instructors at home took granddaughters skiing, aged (very small) 6/7/8/9. We instructed them ourselves pretty much all day every day. When we stopped skiing for drinks at 4pm they carried on skiing on the nursery slope, practicing all sorts of techniques, to the extent of pushing past the lifties for one last run as the covers were going on the turnstile! Once, the littlest six year old had an absolute tantrum when told she had to stop after only seven hours on the slopes!
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As said above all depends on your kids and their learning style.
Big groups can be fun for the kids and if they can learning by copying then great.
My daughter is autistic and even in small groups found herself left behind and struggled (although first couple of times was before we realised she was ASD) and bigger groups were worse....
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Does the 4 hours include some food / lunch break - its surely must do? My youngest was 4.5 when first in ski school (the others 6.5 and  they did 2 hours am lessons - then 2 hour supervised lunch break, indoors in the warmth, then 2 hours pm lessons. That worked well and they enjoyed it.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@t44tomo, good point, if it is that sort of schedule it could well work even for the youngest.
Though not much opportunity to ski with the family.
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Our 4 year old has just managed 2.45hr lessons, he wasn’t in poiu poiu either and on the actual slopes from day 1 with older children. I feel like he’s not got a lot of stamina for his age but he’s been able to spend another 2hrs in the swimming pool going wild & an evening out fine after, his rest time after skiing has been 1.5hrs but one day we made him ski more & then go up to the gondola to visit the top & he managed although he winged a bit but coped (even I was exhausted after lugging a tonne of stuff around to do it). On a couple of days we also did one more short piste with him. He has not been that keen for more skiing afterwards but I think it’s just the change in activity he wants, I’m not sure young children have that good a grasp of time so he probably would of tolerated a longer duration. The instructor is unfortunately key though as he hated the 1st one & has been fine since they sorted out a new ones, he’s actually had 3 instructors this week now, might even have a new one tomorrow although he was asking for a different one today too, he’s just annoyingly picky. His preference would just be to go with an instructor who looks most like a child & is silly  . He did get an instructor 1 day like this but there were only 2 of them in the group so it might also be the attention he liked more too. There hasn’t been more than 4 in his lessons.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply.
I am confident they would both be able to handle the full longer morning lesson (they do stop for a short snack). My reservation is them (esp the 5 year old) being too tired to ski or do anything else with us in the afternoon. When my older one was 5, a 1.5hr private lesson was adequate because they wouldn't stop for anyone else to catch up or for a break unless she needed it (which she never did). She then managed a couple of hours with us after lunch everyday. Good to read about lots of other children who have managed more - this time we have booked an apartment right in the centre which I am hoping will make things easier as it was a trek to and from slopes with equipment and kids which definitely made things harder
The schedule @t44tomo has mentioned would be perfect but unfortunately does not exist with these two ski schools
I get the impression instructors are excellent at both from everything I have read so hopefully won't have an issue. I do feel these things tend to be easier once they are at school and exposed to many more adults through school and clubs. Supreme seems more British but English no issue with either
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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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I reckon thinking they will ski afterwards is a little optimistic, the other family we’ve hung around with on holiday have a 6 & 8 year old, neither of them has wanted to ski after there 2.45hr ski lesson and we are day 5 now, in there cases the parents aren’t willing to really push them to do more. But they have been able to do other activities afterwards, similar set up as we’re very central - 50metres walk (or ski tow) to the ski school meet point at the top of the learner run. We would have a preference of the smaller group sizes, admittedly whatever you choose sometimes things don’t work out perfect, eg mismatch of instructor personalities or just not the right grouping of age ranges or abilities in classes that particular week (which is I think where some of our issues this week stemmed from, but I can’t fault the ratios our child has had). Those things you can’t predict, all you can do is pick what markets the best service you can afford.
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I reckon thinking they will ski afterwards is a little optimistic, the other family we’ve hung around with on holiday have a 6 & 8 year old, neither of them has wanted to ski after there 2.45hr ski lesson and we are day 5 now, in there cases the parents aren’t willing to really push them to do more. But they have been able to do other activities afterwards, similar set up as we’re very central - 50metres walk (or ski tow) to the ski school meet point at the top of the learner run. We would have a preference of the smaller group sizes, admittedly whatever you choose sometimes things don’t work out perfect, eg mismatch of instructor personalities or just not the right grouping of age ranges or abilities in classes that particular week (which is I think where some of our issues this week stemmed from, but I can’t fault the ratios our child has had). Those things you can’t predict, all you can do is pick what markets the best service you can afford.
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You know it makes sense.
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Overall, I think whether they want to ski afterwards is personality dependent. I know my 7 year old will want to if they are not too tired as it is in their personality. They are determined to keep practising something until they master it and have had a similar approach to learning ice skating recently. The 5 year old is a bit more variable but wont even entertain the idea if he is wiped out. Leaning towards booking with Supreme if they have the edge on tuition and then see how things go later in the day - if they want different things, I guess we can split up and one of us swims/does other activities with the younger one.
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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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@snowwithkids, I think weather and conditions also play a part 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Good point about weather, just have to keep everything crossed with that one!
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