Teaching little kids to ski

[Anonymous]

What has worked best for teaching your 4/5 year olds how to ski? Any recommendations for local or even semi-local mountains are appreciated. I know we can only work with what the climate here allows.

[Anonymous]

What worked best for my DS at that age was to NOT have me do it. He clung to me and was whiny. The second he went off with an instructor zero issues and he caught on quickly. If you can I recommend either a multi-week program or 3-4 days in a row (half days). It involves a lot of muscle memory and getting that set from the beginning is key. DS is now 10 and on a race team, so something about my method worked!

[Anonymous]

Put them in lessons, especially if you don’t have easy access to a ski hill. They have a very short attention span at that age and it’s easy to get frustrated when they’re done after a very short time and you’ve got limited time on the hill.

I taught one of mine to ski at 4, but we lived 20 minutes from the slopes and I had a flexible job. I’d take her for a morning and she’d last maybe an hour on a good day. It was most important to keep it fun for her. The next year she was in weekend ski school with her siblings.

If you do try on your own, an “edgy wedgy” was helpful to her in keeping her skis in the right position. I never used the leash because I wasn’t trying to ski anything other than what she could handle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What worked best for my DS at that age was to NOT have me do it. He clung to me and was whiny. The second he went off with an instructor zero issues and he caught on quickly. If you can I recommend either a multi-week program or 3-4 days in a row (half days). It involves a lot of muscle memory and getting that set from the beginning is key. DS is now 10 and on a race team, so something about my method worked!

Do you recall what mountain? Was it in the DMV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put them in lessons, especially if you don’t have easy access to a ski hill. They have a very short attention span at that age and it’s easy to get frustrated when they’re done after a very short time and you’ve got limited time on the hill.

I taught one of mine to ski at 4, but we lived 20 minutes from the slopes and I had a flexible job. I’d take her for a morning and she’d last maybe an hour on a good day. It was most important to keep it fun for her. The next year she was in weekend ski school with her siblings.

If you do try on your own, an “edgy wedgy” was helpful to her in keeping her skis in the right position. I never used the leash because I wasn’t trying to ski anything other than what she could handle.

This is helpful, thank you!

[Anonymous]

My kid was a little older (7) but Snowshoe's lesson was phenomenal for her.

[Anonymous]

We just enrolled our kids in ski school for the first morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What worked best for my DS at that age was to NOT have me do it. He clung to me and was whiny. The second he went off with an instructor zero issues and he caught on quickly. If you can I recommend either a multi-week program or 3-4 days in a row (half days). It involves a lot of muscle memory and getting that set from the beginning is key. DS is now 10 and on a race team, so something about my method worked!

This was us at age 4. Had no interest in listening to us. At age 5 we put her in ski school (Timberline) and she thrived. She's had two years of that over about 4 long weekends each year and she is a pretty good skier.

[Anonymous]

One thought if you're willing to make it a longer trip, and admittedly a far greater time and financial commitment: go to Park City, UT. It's a nonstop flight from DCA/BWI, very easy access from the SLC airport and the ski school infrastructure is exceptional (kids and adults alike), the conditions usually very good for kids (softer powder vs. ice and manmade snow). It's where our kids started at a very young age and are now all black diamond skiers. Again, I recognize it's a far greater commitment but if it's in the cards you won't regret it.

CO is also wonderful, and equally accessible from DCA/BWI to Denver but the trip from Denver Airport to the various resorts can take hours (vs. ~45 mins from SLC to the Park City base) and the road conditions more challenging, from my experience, if you're renting. But the resorts in that area are also wonderful.

Either way, it's a life sport they'll never regret!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid was a little older (7) but Snowshoe's lesson was phenomenal for her.

Another recommendation for snowshoe with the caveat that at 4-5 it may be hit or miss depending on the instructor and the personality of the child.

When we enrolled our 4 year old (the youngest age eligible) in ski school there the first day she didn’t take to it very quickly and had a not particularly patient instructor who suggested she not come back. Luckily we decided to give it one more try and days 2-4 she had a fantastic instructor who she immediately clicked with and progressed rapidly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was a little older (7) but Snowshoe's lesson was phenomenal for her.

Another recommendation for snowshoe with the caveat that at 4-5 it may be hit or miss depending on the instructor and the personality of the child.

When we enrolled our 4 year old (the youngest age eligible) in ski school there the first day she didn’t take to it very quickly and had a not particularly patient instructor who suggested she not come back. Luckily we decided to give it one more try and days 2-4 she had a fantastic instructor who she immediately clicked with and progressed rapidly.

Also, per the pp, I grew up skiing in deer valley and while of course the quality of instruction/ski conditions are nicer it really doesn’t make much of a difference for a 5 year old beginner skier and is absolutely not worth the price tag if that’s your primary focus.

[Anonymous]

Are you planning on skiing a lot? My 13 year old had never skied and I sent him with his uncle (my brother) and his older cousins to Deer Valley. He learned to ski in a day with his cousins just by being taken up and down the bunny slope twice then to the greens and the blues. The second day he could solidly ski blues and tried a black run. The third day he could ski black runs in powder with moguls.

So glad I didn't pay for ski lessons when he was younger. We were thinking of going skiing one year but the pandemic ruined our plans. I just mention it because doing other sports (he skateboard, surfs, plays soccer, etc) makes it really easy to learn how to ski. My sister spent thousands on private ski lessons when her kids were young. They would only ski once a year so I am not sure it was really worth the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you planning on skiing a lot? My 13 year old had never skied and I sent him with his uncle (my brother) and his older cousins to Deer Valley. He learned to ski in a day with his cousins just by being taken up and down the bunny slope twice then to the greens and the blues. The second day he could solidly ski blues and tried a black run. The third day he could ski black runs in powder with moguls.

So glad I didn't pay for ski lessons when he was younger. We were thinking of going skiing one year but the pandemic ruined our plans. I just mention it because doing other sports (he skateboard, surfs, plays soccer, etc) makes it really easy to learn how to ski. My sister spent thousands on private ski lessons when her kids were young. They would only ski once a year so I am not sure it was really worth the cost.

Your son may have been able to get down those blue and black runs but there’s no way he did it with appropriate control.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the responses so far. I will add, our youngest is a toddler and not ready to be on skis this winter, so we wouldn't do a trip out west until she's big enough for lessons. Otherwise, having one kid in a lesson would leave my husband and I having to split up with one squeezing in some runs while the other hangs with the youngest.

DH and I love to ski, and want it to be a big part of our family vacations. An annual trip out west to ski is the goal, with local skiing when weather permits. So for now, I want to focus on getting the kids on skis and comfortable for when they're a bit older.

To the Park City/Deer Valley posters, I do love PC, and it's definitely the easiest western resort to get to from here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What worked best for my DS at that age was to NOT have me do it. He clung to me and was whiny. The second he went off with an instructor zero issues and he caught on quickly. If you can I recommend either a multi-week program or 3-4 days in a row (half days). It involves a lot of muscle memory and getting that set from the beginning is key. DS is now 10 and on a race team, so something about my method worked!

Do you recall what mountain? Was it in the DMV?

We are in SE Michigan. DS literally learned to ski on a former landfill turned "ski resort."