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Ski skool is best

Alistair Scott

Wednesday, 28th November 2007

Parents: Don't try and teach your children to ski

While it is important for children to start learning before they develop a real sense of fear, there is no point in putting them on skis much before five years of age. However, it is a good idea to get them used to the idea that snow is fun. To this end ski kindergartens, which take kids from the age of three and organise games in the snow and generally encourage sliding around in the white stuff, are a very good idea. Such places typically have adjacent indoor nurseries as refuges for when the going gets too cold. Specialist tour operators can arrange access to resort kindergartens.

Once the children are ready to snap on their skis, it is vital that they continue to have fun. Although British operators do not run their own ski schools, several have close relationships with local schools which arrange English-speaking classes specifically for their clients. Frequently, these tend to be younger, independent ski schools aiming themselves at the British market, rather than long-established ‘official’ ski schools. Examples include Snowfun in Val d’Isère, which runs its popular Teddy Bear Club, as well as New Generation, Oxygene and Magic in Motion which operate in other key French resorts.

One huge advantage of travelling with child-friendly operators, such as Mark Warner and Esprit, is that their staff will take the children to ski school in the morning and pick them up again at the end of the afternoon, thus leaving parents to enjoy a complete day on the slopes. (Very young siblings can be left safely in the operators’ creches for the day.)

If you are constrained by having to take your ski break during school holiday periods, do be aware that demand exceeds supply for all these services and it is never too early to book.

For those who want the very best and can afford it, the upmarket operator Powder Byrne provides exceptional, virtually tailor-made childcare for infants from six months upwards in Swiss resorts such as Flims, Grindelwald and Zermatt.

Once all your children have reached a competent standard of skiing, then hiring a private instructor for the family can be fun and enhance the unique parent-child bonding experience of a ski holiday. The best recommendations for such instructors tend to come from friends, who will guard the best instructors’ names and contact details jealously. So don’t plan to holiday the same week as your friends.

All too soon, however, the huge amount of money that you have invested in your children’s ski holidays and instruction will show its rewards. As they grow into teenagers, adults will almost inevitably experience that proud but humiliating moment when you realise that your kids can ski better and faster than you can.