As an adult, you may feel that learning to ski is overwhelming and impossible, but that’s not always the case with kids. In fact, learning young can facilitate a lifelong love of the sport as well as provide many health benefits. If you are a parent who loves to ski, you naturally want to share that passion with your children and there is loads of research that supports that choice. Here’s what you need to know.
What Age Should Kids Learn to Ski?
To some extent, the answer to this question is dependent on your child’s enthusiasm to try it and their athletic ability. However, getting them to be excited about pulling on a kids ski jacket and getting on the slopes at the right age plays a role in how successful they are at it and whether they are interested in continuing the sport.
Children at around 2½ years old can start to engage in activities that mimic being on the slopes, while age 3 is generally considered to be a good time to get started on actual skiing. The main skill a child should have to demonstrate skiing readiness is the ability to shift their weight from one foot to the other. For some children, this may not happen until they are 4 years old, or even older. Starting before a child is ready won’t be successful so it’s best not to push it.
Once you decide to teach your child to ski (whether you do it yourself or you put them in a ski school program), there are many great rewards that you can both enjoy. Keep reading to find out what they are.
It Creates Quality Time
As a parent, you are likely looking for ways to spend quality time with your child. Sports is one such idea, with skiing being one that many families enjoy doing together. Research finds that kids find value in themselves when their parents make time for them, which is ideal for overall wellness, including building self-esteem, setting examples of positive relationships and increasing happiness.
Even if you aren’t a master on the slopes, learning together gives you the opportunity to do something fun and spend important time with one another. Consider filming your runs so you can watch them together later, another opportunity to share your love of skiing with your kids.
It’s Healthy
Studies have found that kids of today’s generation don’t spend as much time up and moving as their parents did. With the increase in digital technology, a lot of a child’s life is spent online. However, studies also find that being sedentary is detrimental to health and can lead to diseases that include obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Not only do snow sports burn calories and work many of a child’s major muscle groups, but it’s also beneficial for mental wellness. Exercise increases endorphins, feel-good chemicals in the brain, so spending time on the slopes increases happiness and a sense of well-being. At the same time, learning something new and accomplishing a new skill builds confidence in children.
It Increases Awareness
Being self-aware is an important skill for children to learn and it can be mastered on the slopes. When you’re on a run, you must pay attention to what your body is doing and the sport helps teach kids where their bodies are in space so they can gain control over themselves, physically. This builds coordination and balance skills, which translates to many other daily activities, separate from being on the mountain.
At the same time, skiing builds self-awareness in children. Skiing gives kids a chance to tune into their strengths and weaknesses, which allows for growth as they get older. This applies to both physical strengths and weaknesses and mental and emotional strengths and weaknesses. Again, this skill translates to other areas of life, which is important as children get older, go to school, make friends, get a job, etc.
It Builds an Appreciation for Nature
Research finds that being outside in nature is a great way to foster healthy mental wellness. With the rise in anxiety and depression in kids, it makes sense that getting your little ones outside is a great way to support their overall health and wellness. Not only that, but they also gain a good awareness of nature and the need to protect it and take care of it.
Being Prepared
Skiing with kids requires preparation, from making sure they have the right size boots to ensuring that each child has a kids ski jacket that fits them and is warm enough for snowy conditions. Snow + Rock has some great options for kids of all ages and sizes.
