We had one day to teach 3 kids, ages 7 and under, to ski... This is how we did it!
First, if you even need to find a place for kids to ski, Utah was great! We went to Nordic Valley Ski Resort. The kids ski lifts were free! Yes, free! Also, if you book your reservations online, you save money & it's a faster check-in.
Our original plan was to have the kids take paid lessons in the morning and we could enjoy the slopes in the afternoon. After searching for lessons, we found out we didn't book them far enough in advance or the lessons were much more than we were willing to spend.
If you are on a budget, you can bring a cooler of food to Nordic Valley as well or they have a nice selection of food at their concessions.
The "lessons" started the night before. We showed the boys videos of other kids skiing. We talked to them about "pizza" and "French fries"...which are different ways to position your skis to speed up or slow down.
On the way in the morning, we knew we had to give the boys extra motivation because it would going to be a struggle to teach three at one time. We decided to tell them if they kept a positive attitude ALL day and not give up, we would buy them a gift. Yes, our kids are motivated by gifts and we took advantage of it & good thing we did.
The morning started out a little rough. The kids were not grasping on as fast as we wanted. Dylan ended up taking off his ski boots so he could walk up and down the bunny hill. We weren't sure if the boys would make it off the bunny hill. We took an early lunch & I made the best purchase of the day, Edgie Wedgies!
This little device helps keep the ski tips together and it made a world of difference. These were recommended by our friends, before we left, but we didn't get them right away. Don't make the same mistake we did. Buy them if you are teaching your kids to ski!
After lunch, the edgie wedgies were connected and the kids were off! "Pizza" and "French fries" were in full force.
Their confidence grew and one by one, each boy went up the "big" hill with mom. They got to ride the ski lift. It was one of the best days of my life.
The boys keep asking to go skiing, the day was a success!.
Here is a video of our full trip to Utah & more Utah blogs to come!