How to Teach Toddlers to Ski

We love to ski as a family, and there is nothing more exciting than watching a child fall in love with skiing. It was that excitement to share the joy of skiing that prompted us to begin teaching our oldest child to ski at age 2 almost 10 years ago. Since that time he has become a a great skier capable of attacking any run we've come across. Using the same methods we also had great success teaching our younger son also at age 2. By age 3 he was independently skiing most intermediate runs at the hills in Oregon and Montana that we usually visit.

 This is a video of Mason at 3 years 3 months.

We were planning on getting Arden up on the ski hill next year at about two and a half, however when we were at a local used ski shop we saw the absolute smallest ski boots I have ever seen.  They were Nordy 14.5s and with some thick socks they were perfect. The nice thing is that they are real ski boots, just sized down. Plus at under $20 they were meant to be. So at just 20 month old Arden's ski journey began.

Of course, we had to get her a new extra small set of skis, as we'd never had a little one start quite so early. Since the rest of her ski gear will likely be hand-me-downs from the brothers we got her a used set of cute little Rosignols with hummingbirds and butterflies.Once she was set up she was pumped to start skiing. 

The first thing is getting a toddler used to the boots at home. We let her wear them around for a 5-10 minutes at a time. Pretty soon she was putting them on herself. 

We also had her practice binding into the skis and sliding around in the skis in the house. 

When planning your visit to the ski hill it is important that you choose a time when your toddler is well rested. We definitely have had times when by the time you get to the hill and get all your gear on, the youngest skiers are ready for a nap. 

In order to ski safely with a toddler you need a little bit of extra gear. The first thing I strongly recommend is a ski harness. I like that the straps come around from the front and you are able to help control the child's hips for turns. I also recommend toe clips, as it forces your child to hold their skis in a wedge position.

At the hill the first time your toddler binds in you may just want to practice walking next to them and helping them glide along while you hold the safety handle on the back of their harness. After that I advise going straight to the "bunny hill". I leave the toe clips on while loading/unloading small children. I just hold the handle on the harness and slide them forward. The handle on the harness is also helpful in lifting them up onto the lift. While on the lift I hold onto the harness and keep my other arm wrapped around my child. Once you get to the top I always remind them "tips up". Then help them slide off and holding the handle direct them off to whatever side you are going.

 

Once at the top get the harness straps out from the pouch, and make sure they are appropriately positioned. 

Help your little one towards the angled part of the hill and have them shuffle until they start sliding. At that point I slowly let out the straps and we are off!

With toddlers it is important to keep in mind their limited endurance. With Arden under 2 I noticed we would only get about 3-5 runs before she needed a break (and usually about a 3 hour nap). Another tip to consider is if your ski hill has some nice long easy runs that aren't too steep it may be worth it to move to them from the bunny hill relatively quickly. The benefit is that you are avoiding the constant on and off of the chair lift in exchange for more actually skiing time. Just beware that if your little one decides half-way done the hill they are too tired to continue you may need to ski the rest of the way with them between your legs and you holding them under the shoulders.

As your child progresses and over the next year or so you should be able to remove the toe clips and then once you are confident in their stopping abilities the leash. I left the handle on the back of my middle son until he was about 6 just for piece of mind and loading on the chairlift. 

Using this progression my 3 year old was place directly into level 3 of 6 in ski lessons and quickly moved up to level 4. The funny thing is the lessons he was in were for 6 and under and because no other children of that age were skiing that well he would always get private lessons. Teaching your toddler to ski is definitely rewarding. The best part is that soon you will be skiing as a family and making amazing lifelong memories!

January Update

The past few months have been busy around here. We've been trying to move into our home/construction zone, as well as homeschooling, working and of course celebrating the holidays. We were able to take a trip to visit my family and Arden loved hiking and exploring their property.

During this time Arden also turned 18 months old. She can read at least 50 words, including the top 30 Dolch sight words. She also routinely speaks in 5-7 word sentences. A few examples are "Momma, put the shoes on me" or "Daddy! Put your hand down!". She is quite opinionated and enjoys telling us what shoes or clothes she'd like to wear as well as how she'd like her hair done. She also loves pretending to "talk to Grandma" on her phone and "cooking pizza" with her Melissa and Doug Pizza kit she got for Christmas.

She has started to enjoy doing some "school" while her brothers do the same. She enjoys drawing in her Kumon coloring book. A normal day for her learning-wise would include a lesson of Little Reader in both English and French, a lesson of Little Musician, some flashcard review and lots of read alouds. A few days a week she will watch "Meet the Sight Words", "The Letter Factory", or "Suzy" a piano DVD which is a her favorite.

We also have been practicing counting. We like to make it more exciting by combining it with activity, such as counting the stairs while we climb or counting and then jumping into Mom and Dad's arms.

 We have begun to work on reading books. A few we have started include the Peter and Jane Keyword books and the Meet the Sight Words books. Although she should be able to read the books, and most of the words are words she knows she still is working on the fluency required to read them in series. At this time she will just read individual words as I point to them.

Reading progress at 18 months

Sorry if I've been a little spotty on posting. We're in the process of moving to/renovating an old school house. It seems kind of funny for a homeschooling family to move into a school, but we're excited.

In the meantime, we haven't let the chaos deter us from our early leaning goals. At this point Arden is reading more and more individual words. Even more exciting she recognizes them in books or if she sees someone writing them. Here's a video of her reading some of her words with her dad.

http://youtu.be/P5QFxoZdewg

Currently, she does Little Reader in English and French 1-2 times a day. She also does Little Musician. She watches "The Letter Factory" to work on letter recognition and sounds, although I suspect she knows them all. She likes to sit at our keyboard (which has letter stickers on it) and play the keys saying the letter on each one. To help with sight words she has been watching meet the sight words and doing some corresponding flash cards. 

Her other recent fascination is with books. She will have me read the same 10 books to her about 3-5 times a day. Her tastes lean heavily towards Dr. Seuss and PD Eastman. She also enjoys "reading" by herself and talking about each page and what it says from memory.

My future Olympian?

Preparing for a forward roll

With the Olympics in full swing. I thought I should post an update about our mobility program. We continue to give Arden as many opportunities as possible to be active through the day, and she definitely takes advantage of them. When people meet Arden they say one of two things. Either: "she is the happiest baby I've ever seen. Does she ever cry?" or "Wow! She is really active!".



Some of her favorite activities including climbing up the ladder, jumping on the trampoline, walking up and down stairs, and doing forward rolls.

We have continued to use a mobility program based off of the "How To Teach Your Baby to Be Physically Superb". She is currently in Stage V.  The best part of stage V is the introduction of early gymnastics. Arden has loves this! She had been watching her brother do forward rolls and when given an opportunity picked it up right away. Now we will often catch her doing them on her own. We also have some 4x4s that she enjoys using as a balance beam.

My number one recommendations for teaching forward rolls (or anything with younger children) is get someone they look up to to do it first. Anything her brothers do is instantly tantalizing, and if mom does a forward rolls she finds it hilarious and can't wait to copy. We started off by having her "touch [her] toes" and then helped her roll over. It didn't take long for her to start rolling down the hall on her own. Here is a video of her forward roll. I love her head tuck and arm swing. I can't watch without smiling.

Small motor activities

We've been working a lot on small motor activities lately, and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.   Today's activity was a really simple activity. All I did was dive Arden an old empty spice container and some dried beans. While I worked with the boys on their school she amused herself putting all the beans in the container, dumping them out and starting over again.

Another favorite activity is drawing.

Intent on her artwork

Some other fun activities include Play-doh (also great to help strengthen hand muscles), bottles and boxes with lids to practice placing and removing, and other sorting/threading activities. It's fun to mix it up using different activities to practice the same skills. We recently bought a shaker and some party-color toothpicks for her to practice threading. So far that seems to be a hit.

Arden Turns One! An Update

So, the big day has finally arrived and our little miss has turned one year old. It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by. But, at the same time it is amazing how much she has accomplished.

For mobility she has graduated to Stage V on the Institutes Mobility Development Scale. About one month prior to her first birthday we went to a swim meet. While there we spent most of the weekend between races in a large gymnasium, and Arden spent the whole weekend walking back and forth across the gym trying to be like all the big kids. By the end of the weekend she had graduated to a full time walker.

This video is from shortly after that weekend, in it her arms have been freed from the primary balance role and she is free to bend down and pick up toys:

Since that time we have been trying to walk as much as possible. Several times a week we will go to a playground where we park about 100 yards away. Arden will walk the entire 100 yards through the grass uninterrupted. Once at the playground she enjoys climbing up the steps, walking over to the slide, sliding down and then sprinting back and doing it again. We also practice walking on a variety of terrains including a long paved hill and rugged ungroomed terrain. Our next step is to aim for 30 minutes of non-top walking at a time.

She continues to enjoy hanging on the pull-up bar. For fine motor skills we have been using a shape sorter as well as a circle stacking toy. She is improving at both of these.

She continues to use the toilet consistently and I can't remember the last time she had a bowel movement in her diaper. She will urinate consistently on the toilet, but still frequently has wet diapers. She will indicate to us she wants to use the toilet, but only if we are already in the bathroom at this point. 

Verbally her her expressive vocabulary as well as her ability to follow directions continues to expand rapidly. We continue to use Little Reader on a daily basis. We also started showing her "Your Baby Can Read" almost daily for the past week and a half. She was bored with the videos a few months ago, but now is very engaged with them. Especially, She loves to point at body parts when you ask her where they are. She reliably will point to her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, belly button and toes. When looking at her flash cards/"Your Baby Can Read" cards consisting of the word with the picture she will respond to clap, mouth, toes, arms up, wave, hi and dog. She will say clap, hi and dog after seeing those cards, the others she will point to that part of the body. I think she actually knows the word, but likes to pull out the card before responding. I might have to make some less exciting cards, to see. Also, she may recognize more of the words, but as she hasn't yet said those words, and as they aren't body parts I don't think she can indicate it.

She likes to kick the soccer ball while walking and will say "kick, kick, kick". She also likes to throw the ball back and forth and will yell "catch" at the same time.

She is also beginning to have a longer attention span for books and appears to be enjoying them more. She will sometimes sit and flip through the pages on her own or bring a favorite to us to read.

EC success today!

Quick post today, but I just wanted to share an Elimination Communication success from today. While we were getting ready for bed Arden got her toilet seat, carried it over to the toilet, set it on top and said "Momma".

I took off her diaper, set her on the toilet, and she quickly went before raising her arms to be taken off.

I don't remember how old the boys were when they started indicating when they needed to be put on the toilet, but I am so proud of how hard she's working to communicate.