Ski School/Lessons for Kids

A snowHead

I'd be grateful for some thoughts on this.

We're tentatively looking at taking our 7 and 5 year-old children for their first skiing trip in the winter (those are the ages they'll be when we travel). I wish my kids were the type who'd be confident to happily run off to group lessons, but they're not. Getting them to do anything remotely intimidating (like being left at the mountainside with an instructor and a group of other kids they don't know) can be next to impossible. One in particular really struggles, which has led to selective mutism.

We are going to get them booked into one of the indoor snow centres in the UK first, which will hopefully help, but I would be grateful for insight/tips for when we're in the mountains.

I'm considering just booking a private instructor for the two of them instead of groups, but that will obviously be expensive, and might make the problem worse for future trips if we then try to revert to groups. I also think a native English instructor/ski school might help ease their anxiety a little.

If we did opt for groups, are they likely to be put together at those ages? Having a sibling in the group would also undoubtedly help.

Is it normal to put young kids into morning and afternoon lessons, or just mornings and then let them decide to either ski or do other fun things in the afternoons?

I never had lessons as a child and taught myself (badly) in my 20s, so I'm not really sure how to approach this.

Any other tips people could offer? Thanks in advance!

A snowHead

We treated ski school like going to school - and assuming they have no issues going to school, then they'll quickly get on board with the whole thing. As soon as there's any wavering, then they'll exploit that and you'll be in a world of pain.

Personally (and everyone is different), we found morning lessons were best - they did it while they were fresh, and got it out of the way. And knew they could look forward to a nice family lunch, fun skiing, sledging and snow ball fights in the afternoon. In fact the key is to big up the non-skiing activities. Skiing can be hard work on your first trip but snow is fun, so that's the bit to focus on.

Going to a snow dome can help if you do it right. We tried it but failed - our youngest was 6 at the time and was in a group of about 15. It was like watching dominos - one fell, knocking the rest over, followed by the instructor picking them up one by one. Just for it to happen again. I think they managed two runs on 5metres in the end. He didn't enjoy it at all. All the pain of the first lesson, with none of the magic of being in resort.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Same for us. Ski school is what you do when in a resort. Almost every year the morning classes except once when we were too late to book them. Kids were small when we started doing this though - only 3.5 yo so they didn't know any better. Smile

We had problems with them not wanting to stay at ski school only on the first day but then they had fun and wanted to go back again.

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Build up their skills and confidence: buy them some inline skates (+ pads) and practise a few times a week. Once they're ready, you can also take them ice skating. By the time they get round to ski school, they should at least be fairly accustomed to wearing rigid plastic boots and moving about on their own under gravity.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Private lessons to start, then small groups when they are used to mountains, skis and all it entails. I have wasted a lot of money on failed groups with my eldest (7). For youngest (4) it will be private and then into small groups.

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@Sonmi451,

I recommend doing the snowdome. I'd book them into a shared private lesson - can be short. Ideally 3. May be in the summer when it's cheaper. I think the confidence of having got a few basics and being used to the kit takes away quite a lot of the anxiety of lessons in resort.

I think it is a difficult choice between private and ski school. I would have thought that ski school would put them in the same class but if the older one takes to it more quickly they might want to split them up during the week. I think private is a better learning environment but even for shared lessons you'll probably only get two hours versus a full morning in ski school. This will cut into your skiing time without them. Personally I would say that is a price worth paying - do everything you can to allow them to enjoy it, make progress and feel good about improving and you will reap the benefits in the years to come.

I think 5 and 7 are great ages to be starting. Our two started a bit younger but we largely put them in shared private lessons - say 5 x 2 hour per week and they worked really well. I sometimes wondered if ski school might have been more fun if they made friends etc but actually they loved having more time to ski with us. They are really accomplished skiers now and skiing with them is just about my favourite thing in the world Very Happy

After all it is free

Try to time your holiday, and the start of lessons, to leave a day for them to just orientate themselves, watch other kids, maybe do some toboganning (with you, easy to rent suitable things to slide on) and, of course, get kitted up with skis and boots. To arrive late one evening, scramble to get the kit and just fling them into their first experience of ski lessons the next morning could be too much for them to take on board.

And don't think that everybody else's kids just launch themselves in and never look back..... it's rarely that easy.

I would think at those ages they might be into separate groups. My kids were 5 and 7 on their most recent trip in December (their 3rd trip) and were in separate lessons still.

I quite liked the Swiss approach for their first trip when the kids were 4 and 6. When the youngest was crying after we left them for the first day, my wife who had been watching and worrying from a distance (out of the kids view) walked over to have a chat with him. The Zermatters instructor politely asked my wife to foxtrot oscar explaining that now she had completely messed up their whole plan and the way they do things. My wife retreated rather sheepishly but to be honest the kids were perfectly fine after that. So were we, as we went for an early gluhwein.

Any indoor slope learning is great for getting used to kitting up.

All the above said, if you can afford to do private lessons then I would do that too. At least until they start to enjoy themselves.

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For most parents I'd say @afterski is correct. Ski school and just dump the kids and run.

Specifically in your case you might want to tweak that slightly to ski school but:
1. Email the ski school ahead of time to explain your specific issues, like the selective mutism. You child probably won't be either the first or the last they've seen.
2. Get there early on the first day, earlier than you think as everything will take longer than you think! Getting there early means you can speak directly to each child's instructor and as importantly you can be relaxed, not running around headlessly trying to work out which group each child's meant to be in/where that group is. If you're stressed they will pick up on it.
3. Once you've got them tagged and to the right place, run away. Maybe not up a chair lift and skiing but properly be seen to walk away and out of site, like you would dropping them at school on an average Tuesday. Depending what the ski school/instructors have said you may want to walk around a building and spy on them from a distance until you can see the groups are up and running, in case there is a major issue - but chances are bar a few initial tears they will be fine.

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I can recommend 3 x 1hr private lessons on a dry slope (better value than the fridge imo) prior to your first holiday, so they have the basics in place before heading to resort. Then 2-3hr private lessons each day in resort with an English speaking instructor.

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Thanks everyone, some very good ideas and pieces of advice.

In my experience private lessons are for learning and group lessons are for childcare. There's nothing wrong with either that's just how it worked out for me.

Overall I found that for each £ spent more progress/learning happened in private lessons.

I have had my best experiences with private lessons for my son and then the two of us spending the remainder of the time skiing together at his own pace.

I would avoid full day lessons mainly because it gets in the way of everyone skiing together the rest of the time which is precious.

You know it makes sense.

If you're going in school holidays just be sure to book ski lessons WELL in advance.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

We took our then 5 year old skiing last Easter to les arcs,he loved it. He didnt like the group lessons and did just 2 mornings out of the 6. He said there was to much waiting around and not enough actual skiing. Next time we are thinking of just gettig a couple of private lessons. He much preferred to ski with us and just having time on snow this way his skiing and confidence came on alot and i think he enjoyed the holiday more as a result. Somtimes he was more excited to be riding a "moving chair" or gondala than actually skiing,we even just did the odd lap up and down transarc gondola for "fun" . He enjoyed watching other people skiing/ boarding and we would chat about what they were doing.
He did have some dry slope lesson before and luckly we live 1.5hrs away from Glenshee so we had a good few trips before we went so he was used to boots and skis and was basically self sufficient on the 2 begginer tows there.

A snowHead

As a UK instructor I absolutely agree with @Henwc, for small children to actually learn they need to be in a group of no more than 3 when they start out, otherwise the instructor spends most of the time picking children up and sorting them out, rather than making any progress.
I teach on a dry slope, and having talked to customers who have tried snowdomes first, I would also agree with @davehas, and say go for a dry slope private, rather than a snowdome group. If you are going to go down the snowdome route, do it now, or in September/October - do not leave it till the Winter when everyone else has the same idea, the slope will be heaving, and classes will be full to the max!
We actually only do half an hour for 5-8 year olds, but because half an hour isn't very expensive, we get quite a few parents who just make it the Saturday morning activity for the Autumn.

A snowHead

@Sonmi451,
Which resort?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

With great respect to @karin and her experience, I DO think that small kids can learn in a group, though certainly private lessons for the very littlies are the ideal. My daughter started at 4 in Austria, on a two week holiday. She was not a child to rush in..... the first week she watched a bit, warily. Then the Austrian "ski school presentation of badges and ribbons" bowled her over and she wanted one. I said we'd pay for her to hire gear and have lessons only if she wasn't a wimp. We rented gear for the middle Saturday and I pulled her up an almost flat nursery slope and had her slide down "hands on knees". I told her that ANY MOANING would mean no lessons. There was no moaning. She found the very baby group (sliding under little mickey mouse figures) boring and when I asked about promoting her the ski school were fine with it but warned me that the instructor spoke no English. She was, however, a sweet woman (though "German always sounds cross" said my daughter) and an excellent instructor, in quite a big group. Alex was happily snow plough turning under complete control and getting up the nursery slope drag lift at the end of the week, and got her ski school ribbon. But that was in a low season January week - it wouldn't have worked in peak season with all the lessons booked months beforehand.

I do think it can be a problem - I've done a lot of delivering apprehensive grandchildren to ski school and it can take a lot of psychology. And occasionally bribery. The last minute "I need a wee" is a classic. You need to suss out the nearest loo to the ski school meeting place and be there in time to do a wee (not the work of a moment in all that gear and they'll moan like crazy if they wet their pants even a little bit) and still get to the lesson on time. Bribery in our case was often "we'll go to the Chocolatine and you can choose your favourite cake". Gets expensive!

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@Origen, I agree if you have the children for 2 hours a day all week it is different. I guess I was referring rather more to the scenario of learning in the uk, where the time scale is much shorter, and also the very early stages where they haven't yet mastered the ability to move around on their skis or stand still on their skis on the slope. My experience of teaching 3 small children on a dry slope is often that until they have got the very basics mastered, you help one child with their go, turn back to the other 2 and find that they are in a heap at the bottom of the little slope!
However, I also know that my children much preferred having a private instructor for the 3 of them rather than being in ski school.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

That inexpressibly tedious first shuffle round a baby garden with tiny moving carpets and little slides down, with a big group of kids shepherded by several luckless (very junior!) instructors always looks miserable but it's a tried and tested way to get the tiny ones going. It's basically child care, though.

A good compromise for older kids who can do snowplough turns and get themselves up when they fall over is small group lessons - our ESI in Les Saisies does "mini teams" of not more than 5 in holiday season, which has worked well for some grandchildren, especially as sometimes there are only 3 or 4 of them.

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@Sonmi451, If you do decide to go with group lessons perhaps look for an all inclusive package where all the families are staying in the same accommodation and the kids can get to know each other a little bit outside of the lessons?

My son and I went to UCPA for a family week at Easter with this setup and he enjoyed the group lessons more than usual because he knew the other kids.

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After all it is free

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One thing to consider is whether you want them to be in lessons all day or just morning/afternoon. Austria is usually the former, France (and possibly other countries) is usually the latter.

It's mainly a personal preference I would say. I learned in Austria (but as an adult, my wife did too) and so did my son when he was 4 yrs old so morning and afternoon lessons are the only thing we are used to. Both of us learned in Obergurgl where classes return to the village for lunch but in other places they may stay on the mountain.

My son enjoyed learning there, and the classes were good and not too big. We never had to book in advance even at Feb half term, we just turned up at the ski school office on Saturday afternoon and just booked for the week (or when he was older and able to ski with us, he did 3/4 days). I have never had to book in advance for lessons in any Austrian resort but it's possible that it's needed in some places, I just haven't discovered them yet !

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@Chaletbeauroc, where is this please?

You know it makes sense.

Don't assume you can choose the time of your kids lessons. Availability even of privates will be limited in school hols. I've just started looking at lessons for some of my grandchildren, aged 4, 7 and 12, at Christmas in Les Saisies. Their Christmas present! It's not just a case of "mornings or afternoons". The ESI do "mini teams" of maximum 5 kids from 4 years old which have been great in the past, but in the Christmas hols the only times available are 12 - 13.30. And they will book up quite quickly so I need to get a move on.

So the timing you ideally want might not be available! A lot depends on your family habits. Some families are early morning people, all up, breakfasted, booted and spurred, found two gloves for everybody and ready to walk/ride to the ski school meeting place for an early start. Some aren't. If you've not done it before, don't underestimate the labour and psychology involved in getting kids out of the door, in a positive frame of mind, early in the morning! It's a holiday!

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Ski School/Lessons for Kids

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