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Ski & snowboarding

Under 7 year olds in ski classes

6 replies

WayneN · 25/01/2010 11:51

Hi,

I am a ski instrcutor in Folgarida (it's the Italian Dolomites) and work for a UK tour operator during the summer.

Would like to hear from parents of young kids (under 7) as to what they are looking for (for the their kids) whilst on a ski holiday. Ski class, ski crèche, baby sitting, snacks included, supervision, CRB checks, etc, etc.

Had a number of requests from parents of young children (6 and under) for 2011.
Normally not a problem as we tend to group small kids of this age into a separate class. But for some dates for 2011 we may not have enough people in school to be able to create a specific 6 and under class.

Have looked at the idea of a ski crèche but this would only work if all the kids were of the same skiing ability ? ie. you can?t put kids who have never skied with others who have skied for a few weeks.

I fully understand that parents will want their kids to learn to ski but it?s not really fair on other (maybe adult) members of the class to have (for example) a group of 4 year olds and we will want to be able to offer younger children to opportunity to learn to ski in the right environment.

We have on previous years been able to mix-n-match with other UK TO?s in resort but this won?t be possible next year as all the other UK TO?s (to our resort) either have gone bust or have stopped coming here. This year it isn?t a problem due to the large numbers in classes; so it?s been possible to create specific class for this age group.

Just trying to see a ?possible? future problem and create a method of dealing with it before it happens and trying to keep everyone happy (ma è sempre un grande problema)

Also, any ideas would be helpful as to what happens in other resorts and ski schools from people who work there.

Many thanks

Wayne

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GothDetective · 25/01/2010 12:00

We normally ski with Esprit and their kids classes work well. The kids are split into Spritelets and Sprites. I think Spritelets are 5 and under and then older kids are Sprites.

Then you get beginner, intermediate and improver in each age range.

I think you have to put kids of similar ability with each other. But likewise I wouldn't want a 9yo beginner in the same class as a 4yo beginner as the 9yo is likely to have more stammina/stronger legs and could be held back by someone much younger than them.

But if you're only going to have small numbers of kids don't know how practical this would be.

My dd is 8yo now and can ski all day. She tends to have a lesson in the morning and then supervised lunch. So we don't need to pick her up till 2:00pm. Then she can ski with us for a bit. When she was younger she used to go in the creche after lunch as she was too little to ski with us. I would want someone who worked in a creche to be CRB checked but wouldn't be bothered about a ski instructer having a CRB check.

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WayneN · 25/01/2010 13:05

Thanks for the feedback

"wouldn't be bothered about a ski instructer having a CRB check."

That's not a problem as all instructors are CRB checked now.

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JennyWren · 25/01/2010 13:14

We took our daughter ski-ing for the first time last spring and she loved it. She was not quite four at the time, so we only enrolled her for three mornings - it was ski/play, so they skied for a while, then played indoors, then skied again before peing collected at lunchtime. We were very lucky in that there were a maximum of two others in her class (only one other on two of the days) and they were of a similar age and ability.In the afternoon either I took her toboganning (with a very little one as well, I wasn't ski-ing)or my husband took her up the nursery slope for a bit, then we played indoors for the rest of the afternoon. If you don't think you will have enough young children to offer classes all season, could you offer them only in selected weeks, to concentrate them all into the same time period, or only on a limited number of days each week?

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MollieO · 25/01/2010 13:34

Ds (5.5) second ski week this year. The plan was for him to have 2.5 hr morning lessons and play in the afternoon. Instead he didn't like being lumped with younger children at the creche so he ended up having lessons in the afternoon as well. Very happy and skied all week bar one morning when he decided to have a lie in (and then moaned about missing his lesson).

If he was in a class with less able or younger children I'd guarantee he would be bored and play up which would be very tedious for his instrcuctor .

I would say that most 5 yr old beginners are a match for adult beginners!

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Francagoestohollywood · 25/01/2010 13:50

Ooooh I love Folgarida, great slopes!!!

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WayneN · 25/01/2010 18:38

Ooooh I love Folgarida (me too )

At the moment we have a mminimum age of 7 for ski classes - but we are looking at this.

Thanks for all the feedback

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