Last week the kids were attending a
different kind of school, one that required warm clothing, snow boots and skis
instead of pens and paper.
Ski School started at 9am with a 2.5 hour
lesson on the slopes before returning for a long lunch break. After a couple of
hours it back to the slopes for more.
We decided to bunk off regular school for a week
and put the kids in an advanced ski in Slovakia run by friends of ours. We didn’t know what to expect but we thought
why not, it’s not always that you get to do these things is it? Luckily my work let me work remotely and off
we went….
Of course we had to keep up with ‘real’
school work, so we quickly did as much homework as we could on the long train journey to
Slovakia so it wouldn’t get in the way!
All
the kids were roughly separated into age/ ability groups. And my kids were adamant that they didn’t
want me anywhere near them, ‘Mum it’ll be so embarrassing, you’re too slow,
what if you fall over?’
They were right off course – I skied with
the 5 and 6 year olds and I’m not exaggerating when I say I had a tough
job keeping up with them hurtling down the icy black slopes. All the kids were incredible, lessons mainly
took place on the black slopes or even off piste negotiating moguls (tricky bumps of snow). I’m still blown away.
The whole operation was ran like a ski boot
camp, every night at 7pm we had a de-brief on the days skiing, told how to
improve, the kids were given sweets and certificates as incentives - they
loved it.
‘Why
can’t school always be like this?’ asks my youngest, who would quite happily
drop going to regular school forever.
It’s a difficult balance isn’t it? You want kids to learn in a structured environment
but it’s equally important to us as a family that they also have fun, or do
something practical or physical for a
change.
I had a good week too – a little bit of
skiing, a bit of work, a few mulled wines and a lot of lattes.
