How to Teach Your Toddler to Ski

Tips and Tricks that Transform Teaching into Playing in the Snow on Skis!

Skiing is an adventure that lasts a life time. It transforms the winter from dreary to dreamy and creates fun for the whole family. Just because you can ski though doesn’t necessarily make teaching a toddler easy. In this post, I’ll show you how to teach your toddler to ski with the same tips and tricks that we use with our baby bear.

Why listen to me? While yes, I am currently teaching my two year old to ski, I have my Level one certification through PSIA and worked as a children’s ski instructor for a few years. After leaving the resort, I’ve taught countless more friends, family members, and other kids over the years.

What Not to Do:

Avoid putting too much pressure on the activity. If you set your expectations too high, it can steal the fun for everyone involved. This is especially true with really young kids. We started our son at about 22 months old. Being younger, we knew that this first season might just be about him learning to love the snow and being on skis.

Tips and Tricks for How to Teach Your Toddler on Skis

Introduce Your Toddler to Their Equipment Before You Get to the Slopes

Whether it’s in your living room, or in your backyard, let your child get to know their gear. Skiing involves a lot of clothes and extra stuff that they’re just not used to. If you wait until you get to the slopes to shove them into it all you are creating a potentially overwhelming situation.

We spent loads of time playing in the snow and carting our little one around in a sled before introducing him to skiing. He got used to being in multiple layers of clothing, gloves, hats, etc. He also go used to moving around in the snow -both in boots and in a sled. This sensation of “riding” is also a great thing to introduce before hand if you can. It also made the snow fun, my next tip.

Dry Runs

If the clothing can be intimidating, wait until you strap really heavy boards to your feet. We put out a few blankets and let our son try on his ski boots and skis in the house. Again, this isolated the sensation and allowed him to grow into a new experience in a comfortable environment. The first time we had him step into his bindings on the snow was much less overwhelming. If you have enough snow, take a dry run at home! Even if they hate their first time in all of the gear, you didn’t waste a day of skiing. They can get used to everything without all of the people, moving lifts, etc.

This also will help them learn how to stand, shuffle their feet, and balance on their skis. So you are creating a solid foundation upon which to teach your toddler how to ski.

Make it Fun

After you buy the clothes, rent the gear, and purchase your lift tickets or passes, the dollars can add up. This can place stress on what should be a fun activity. Try to keep the situation light hearted and fun. Games make every situation more fun. We love to play peekaboo in between getting dressed, or let him “help” when getting all of the equipment out of our locker.

Play Games

Before putting their skis on, drop all your gear and play a game of tag or ring around the rosie. Giggles cut anxiety better than any reassuring words can. It also teaches them how to move in ski boots and all of their clothing. It also helps to warm them up before you get moving.

On the chairlift, ask them to point out cool things that they see. Get them to use their imaginations and tell them that their goggles help them see things that aren’t really there. As a ski instructor we used to tell the kids there were polar bears in the woods and that they were magical so they needed their goggles to see them. They loved it and started imagining all sorts of colored polar bears, tigers, dragons and more.

Our little one is into trucks, so we make lots of truck sounds and have him hold his hands out in front to drive the truck. It helps keep him focused (otherwise he’s looking around and going every other direction or spinning around). It makes it fun. I had one kid who kept falling on purpose, to the point where really weren’t getting anywhere. I asked him “Charlie, bud what’s up? Why do you keep falling down.” Laying in the snow he explained there were bad guys in the trees and they were shooting him…so it was time to start shooting back. All six kids in my lesson that day had a blast looking for bad guys and working together to get down the hill.

The Right Gear makes the Difference

Part of me hates saying this because it can involve spending extra money. But, if this is something you plan to do all season it makes it worth it in the long run. The right gear makes all of the difference because it keeps your toddler warm and comfortable while you are teaching them to ski. Wool base layers wick moisture and provide warmth, and waterproof mittens keep hands warm and dry. One pair of warm wool ski socks make boots much more comfortable than two thick pairs of cotton socks. Helmets and goggles keep kiddos safe and keep their faces warm.

Learn more on dressing your little ones for the snow here.

We use a Giro Helmet for our toddler. It keeps his head warm, but it also keeps him safe. You’ll be surprised at how many times a kid can conk his head off the snow in a day.

For his skis, we rented from our local ski and board shop for the season. It’s a lot more affordable than buying new skis every year or two.

We were gifted from locker neighbors a ski harness for kids. I’ll post more on this later but we use it without leads/leashes/tethers for a number of reasons. Basically it’s for holding him on the chair, picking him up, and general safety, not teaching.

His current snow suit and gloves we bought our local Burton Outlet shop and saved about 50%. Most of the time we don’t even bother fighting his thumb into the glove. It saves so much time getting dressed, and keeps his hands warmer.

Once they get their feet underneath them, we recommend using the Edgie Wedgie to teach slowing down and stopping in a wedge or snowplow. It’s about $10 well spent.

Start Slow and Build on One Skill at a Time

Keep it as simple as possible. Pick words that you will use consistently and break things down to a really simple level. The first few days are just going to be getting their skis underneath them. Don’t expect them to nail their wedge on the first run. In fact, you might not make it out of the beginner area and that’s okay. If they’re having fun on skis you are doing a great job.

If you try to heap too much instruction on at one time it will get frustrating and overwhelming. It will also most likely end in tears. We focus on standing up and moving his feet before anything else. Yes, we end up skiing him a good bit of the time, but as I said before, time and grade on skis is as much a part of the learning experience as being independent and stopping.

Terms to Help:

Put yourself in the mindset of a two or three year old. Then think about what you are trying to get them to do. We say “squish the bug” instead saying push your heel down into your binding. Instead of shuffle your feet we say “move those feet”. If a term or phrase isn’t sinking in, try something else.

“Stand up straight” can be tough especially when they are trying and can’t figure out how to. Try using “Use strong legs”. That simple cue breaks down what they need to do to in order to help you.

Allowing them to figure out how to move their body is a great teaching tool as well. Sometimes when I’m skiing backwards in front of my son, I’lll ask him if he can make his skis look like Mamas. You can watch them and see them trying different things and when it works, that skill clicks!

Many people use “pizza” for wedge and “french fries” for straight skis. The resort I worked at found kids wanted their pizza slices mega big and their hips would lock up. So we used the word “arrow” for wedge which also helped when teaching them to turn. We haven’t settled on what terms our little one prefers but so far we like using “arrow, go slow” and “straight skis for go fast”. He likes rhyming so the “arrow, go slow” is sinking in.

Snacks

Load up on “nacks” as my son calls them. Have a few in your pocket. Stash more in your bags. Snacks can be rewards for trying new things, or a way to unwind on the chairlift and keep their energy levels up. We go to Costco and find fruit bars and small snacks that are healthy and full of energy.

Take Breaks

When you are teaching your toddler how to ski you are asking them to use their muscles in new ways. It can be exhausting. They’ll need breaks to warm up, and rest up. Plan to take a few and then when the opportunity arises, you aren’t changing plans.