 Poster: A snowHead
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I've skied since an early age and was in ski school every holiday. Often having lunch with the ski school too. My wife is relatively new to skiing and thinks that less time in ski school/more time skiing together as a family.
So my kids will be 7 and 9 in December. They have both skied 3 weeks previously plus a few indoor slope sessions and some rolling carpet silliness.
What do you all think is the optimal split for an Austrian ski school group lesson? We will be able to ski 6 days (Sat to Fri). There is a the ski race on Friday which is a must do.
We will be in Oberlech so probably 3 days start Sunday then meet for lunch. Monday/Tuesday leave them in for lunch and try and knock the run of fame off with my wife (If there is freshies then I will be getting a guide and ditching her....) Wed/Thursday maybe a day off then back for the race day on Friday.
How do y'all split it?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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What we did when the Kids were that age...
Lady F could already ski to a reasonable level and the Kids had a few weeks under their belt.
Kids had morning lessons and we then skied together in the afternoon as a family, if that was their wish.
I would ski with Lady F in the morning (often in a Private Lesson)....and if she wanted to lie on as there was no lesson, I would join the SCGB who were operating back then and come back for lunch and ski in the pm with anyone who wanted to.
That was in France - but I'm sure Austria would be similar.
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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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I'm in a different spot as I do a fair amount of solo trips so get my "me" time then and also we go for only 3 or 4 days skiing at a time (I find this is optimum, they're all tired after that and wouldn't want a 5th or 6th day).
What we do is hire a private guide for two hours from around 11. Put the two kids who are similar level in for one hour and the third on her own for the other hour. I will generally ski around with whomever isn't in the lesson. We probably do a few runs all together either side of the lesson.
The two younger ones are usually fecked after that so I probably head out with the eldest one in the afternoon for some bigger targets.
This will presumably change as they get older. Personally, I find the idea of going on a ski holiday and barely skiing with your kids who are in ski school the whole day a bit impersonal? My favourite type of skiing now is with the kids, the joy of seeing how much they love it and seeing them jump off side piste and stuff. If doing traditional ski school model would think morning in lessons / afternoon off to ski with you is the best balance. But again, I'm saying that as someone who has the luxury of scratching my own itch on usual a few trips each year so I can see why people might want a whole day free to themselves.
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I sort of look at it like an intensive driving course and putting the hard work in early. Another couple of trips and they will be FAR faster than my wife (to be fair they probably already are). Once they are at a fairly decent level then we can go anywhere on the mountain and we are on to private lessons/guides as a family.
Also I think the kids probably get a decent amount of messing about with other kids. I certainly did when I was in ski school.
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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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Surely the easiest way is to put kids in the same group lesson all week whether half day or full day. Trying to chop and change to allow you some adults only days seems convoluted and possibly more disruptive for the kids learning. Can you not blast round where you want to go in a morning? With the relatively recent lift connection to Alpe Rauz I'd have thought decent piste skiers could punch it to Galzig/St Christoph and back quite easily in a morning (no real point in skiing down to St A just to come back IMV)
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We always used to put them in half day lessons and ski with them in the afternoons - they loved showing what they had learnt and all the runs the instructors had shown them…much more enjoyable family time than sticking them in full day lessons.
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@Dave of the Marmottes, I think what I wrote was a bit confusing. They will do 3 full days for sure (the ski school will do their lunch potentially on one day). Austrian ski schools I have used before have politely asked us not to take them out and insist on full days.
More of a question of what other people do than what I'm planning on doing.
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My daughter/son would have a lesson 9-11am each day. My wife and I would ski and then meet them for Crepe and Fries at 11am.
Daughter and wife would then normally head home and I would ski with my son until lunchtime.
Pretty much the same routine for the last 9 years, the daughter sometimes staying out until lunchtime and my son sometimes having a different lesson in the afternoon.
We have skied 5 weeks a season with them every year though, so maximising ski time has never been a priority.
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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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We did full days with lunch for first 2 or 3 years, then after that we did half-days, collected them for lunch then had some family ski time in the afternoons. Sometimes a visit to the pool if it was bad weather. It was supposed to be a family holiday after all.
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Our daughter was happy to stay with her new mates in ski school all day, but appreciated us doing a few local runs with her at the end of the day so she could show off her abilities. However there was usually a full day at the end when we could do a family "expedition" including lunch somewhere different which she was always motivated for, and by then we knew which runs matched her capability; it sounds as if that won't work for you if the non-ski-school day is at the beginning.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@afterski, In Austria the Ski School "package" usually includes discounted ski hire and a supervised lunch with race day being the Thursday not Friday. So you get a full day on your last day anyway. Most of us are more than happy if M&D want to ski with the kids in the afternoon after about day 3!
But to keep the missus happy you might be better off paying for a Private "Family" ski instructor for 3/4 days, mornings only. Then you can both join in if you want and/or have them in the afternoon.
You didn't say when you're going, but if it is Easter you'll be done by lunchtime anyway.
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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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If they can ski ok and you get on with them, then try taking them out for the week. It is a family holiday and it is over of the best ones you get with the kids. They come on really fast when they start getting some miles in.
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| afterski wrote: |
I sort of look at it like an intensive driving course and putting the hard work in early. Another couple of trips and they will be FAR faster than my wife (to be fair they probably already are). Once they are at a fairly decent level then we can go anywhere on the mountain and we are on to private lessons/guides as a family.
Also I think the kids probably get a decent amount of messing about with other kids. I certainly did when I was in ski school. |
This was pretty much my thinking. And our lessons were usually 3hr half day so we still saw them in afternoons.
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You know it makes sense.
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Saalbach lessons are 9.30-3 but lifts are 8.30-5 so we ski for an hour, then lessons (and parents can have a proper blast and day out), then couple of hours at the end. Normal culminating with some drinks and kaiserschmarm on the hill and then empty pistes home. Older one is just starting to not need lessons, so he’s now in the adult gang.
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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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I see and interact with my children all year. I remain scarred still from having appalling “tuition” as a teenager locking me into a lifetime of bad habits which have put a low ceiling on my progress. The two combine in my interest to give the children a lot of good tuition so they are better than me.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@RedandWhiteFlachau, we are going to Oberlech pre Christmas. To be honest I haven't looked about for ski schools (yet) other than the local one the hotel sent a link to. Perhaps that might be a good idea.
To do the run of fame with my wife one day I'd probably hire an instructor/guide to avoid any cross words when one of the pistes looks steeper than she would like!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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From week 4 we put the children in private lessons for 3-4 days, These were full days, and used to meet them and the instructor for lunch then a couple of runs and hot chocolate with the whole family at the end of the day. progress tends to be pretty rapid with private tuition, from week six we all ski together all day.
My wife went to ski school and skied with me/ kids after lunch before we met up with the kids. But in her 5th week/year, she joined the kids in the private lesson so that she could keep up.
I had plenty of time to ski throughout the day, Kids enjoyed the format, met all the family time criteria. Everyone happy.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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My kids never did much ski school. Yes, of course they'll become better skiers with lots of high quality instruction. But so what? They'd become better swimmers or sailors or pianists with lots of high quality instruction too. It depends on priorities.
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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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@Origen, yes agree. Who cares if it's not technically perfect carving they are doing, a lot of people just ski for fun..and they are at the point they can get down blues and easier reds, they just need more experience and don't need an instructor for that, and will have more fun also.
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It depends how much you want to spend, and how much you want to ski with the kids, or the kids to ski with friends (or in our case, often cousins). We generally did holidays as cheap as possible when kids were small - early weeks of January, self-catering or cheap catered chalet, no lunches on the slopes. Lessons were an additional expense, though they all had lessons to start with. A lot of people seem to treat ski school as an opportunity to get shot of the kids!
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We always liked skiing with the kids and going on lessons with them. They were the ones that wanted to improve and keep doing lessons. Son at 14 still goes on lessons, but his priority is to become good, I just have to fund it.
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If my kids had been desperate to continue with lessons we might have found the cash - but they weren't! But one subsequently did seasons, one time living with a top British instructor in Val D'I, so he got very good. Both the others have chosen to have private lessons since, as adults, when they were more motivated to learn!
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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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Also, kids tend to improve dramatically when they have their first proper growth spurt because they suddenly get big/heavy enough to make the boots and skis work properly! It's very cost effective in terms of lessons and generally happens in the off-season..... of course, you'll have to buy them new ski gear though.
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We varied according to the stage of the kids.
Early on they always got half day ski school.
As they got older and we skied twice a year they often had lessons on one holiday but not the other.
The lessons were often privates but with friends which kept the price down. They were skiing more adventurous stuff than their parents would take them on.
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FAQ
