Blogger’s note: This story was originally written in February, 2009.

Three weeks ago, Maxine, the ski school director, called and asked if I could teach some first and second grade kids from Loon Lake School for two hours on each of the next three Thursdays. Since work was slow and skiing with kids is fun, I said sure.

On the first day, 90 kids showed up with teachers and some parents on big yellow buses. Seven of the little rascals were put in my care. I was told they could all ski and had ridden the beginner chairlift, so off we went to the top of the learning hill. 

Saying they all could ski was somewhat of an overstatement, but I managed to get them out of the way a short distance down the hill. 

One thing I learned early on in my teaching career with kids is: keep them moving! The last thing that works is to keep them standing around while I talk.

It was evident they all needed to work on holding a strong wedge and to develop nice round turns. 

“Why do we need to learn to turn?” I asked. 

“So we don’t go down in that big hole in the trees,” one girl said. 

“Good Answer. Why else?”

Silence.

“How about using turns to control our speed?”

Silence again.

“Why?” Tessa said. “I like to go fast.”

Because I said so, I thought. But I kept my tongue.

So they spent the next hour getting bored listening to short explanations and watching quick demonstrations and following in my tracks over and over down the beginner hill until I thought they were ready for the next big challenge.

“How would you like to go on an adventure?” I asked.

Tessa voiced her opinion once again. “Yeah, I’m tired of this!”

So off we went to Chair 3, which goes about two-thirds the way to the top of the mountain. Only two of the seven kids had been on this chairlift before, so there was a little apprehension for four of them, and Evan was really nervous. So I told him I would sit with him on the chair. Then all was okay and off we went.

Over the years I have found the first trip up the hill above the beginner slope is usually full of anxiety, and the ski down is one of survival. This was no different, and some took a lot longer than others to reach the beginner hill again.

When I finally rounded them all up, we went back to the top of the beginner hill and I told them to ski to the bottom at their own pace and any way they chose. They all took off like bats out of hell and were down in about half the time from previous runs.

I then asked them what they thought about skiing the beginner hill now. They all agreed it was way too easy. Next, I asked what they thought about their adventure going up Chair 3.

“That was freaking awesome!” Tessa yelled at the top of her lungs. At that, everyone in the learning area turned to see what that was about and we all laughed.

“Go have lunch and we’ll have more fun this afternoon,” I said, and off I went to have a fun run for myself.

Fast forward one week. It was 25 degrees, the wind was blowing sidewise about 20 mph, and it was snowing hard.

When my herd showed up for their lesson I was surprised to find three kids had been moved up to me from the previous week’s never-ever group. Additionally, a Loon Lake teacher came over with another student, the perfect real life little red-haired girl, and said she should also be in my group. And oh, by the way, she is the superintendent’s daughter. 

So off we went to the top of the beginner hill so I could see how the new kids skied. Oh boy, the three new ones were way behind my group from last week, and the red-haired little girl could barely hold a wedge. Turning seemed out of the question. Thank goodness the ski school director sent Russ up to help me split the group by ability, and I took the slower five.

My first challenge was to get the little red-haired girl up to speed with the rest of the group. She would ski as slow as possible in a wedge, leaning back as far as possible and then sit down on her butt, giggling. So I gave the others a task: go practice on their own twice down the hill while I skied backwards, patiently coaching my challenge until she started standing up and skiing with some speed. 

Next challenge was to get her to turn, so I gave the rest of the group a task and again told them to practice on their own. After about an hour and a half, by damn she was actually following me and making pretty good turns. So we joined the rest of the group and I let them take turns leading down the hill. After two hours I was tired, but the kids seemed to be happy so I told them goodbye and quickly went to Chair 3 to ski at least one run for me.

There were no more than five or six skiers on the slope, about six to seven inches of fresh powder, and the sun was peeking through the clouds. What great cruising with only a few tracks in front of me. I went home a happy camper.

Today, March 5, 2009, was the last day for me to ski with my Loon Lake group. Once again it was a raging blizzard for the first hour, but the weather eased up for the second. 

After two or three runs on Chair 5, I could see all the kids were making solid wedge turns—even the little red-haired girl, Maureen. They also looked pretty bored with the one-minute trip to the bottom of the beginner hill, so I suggested we go on an adventure. “Let’s go to Chair 3,” I said. “Yea!” they all shouted. That meant survival anxiety for the kids, and again herding the slow ones to the bottom for me.

Thankfully it was just foggy enough on the run to obscure the distance to the bottom of the run and its steepness. That seemed to diminish the anxiety in the slower kids, and the rest didn’t seem to care. By the time I coached the slowest from the top of Chair 3 down to the top of beginner hill, the rest of the group was tired of waiting and wanted to get going. Right then most of the fog blew away to the top of the hill so I had the kids turn around and look at the hill they had just skied. They were amazed at their accomplishment.

At that, I asked if they remembered the two most important things I had spent three weeks drumming into their brains. Maureen raised her hand and said, “Make turns.” Evan said, “Look hot while we are skiing.” With that I chuckled and told them to strut their stuff to the lodge and have lunch.  

Again I discovered I really enjoy working with kids on the slopes.

Ken Kaiyala
2-28-2009