"El Niño y el Esquí" is our Little Teaching Manual that can be useful to parents and teachers dedicated to teaching children.
Tangible and intangible values in Snow White about "the child and skiing".
For children, everything is interesting and exciting, they have expectation. Their natural spark pushes them to explore in a pleasurable and spontaneous way: they are full of optimism. They frame all this in naivety, which is part of the charm and attraction we have for them: they live in the moment, they are oriented to pleasure.
By their nature, children are dependent and need support. As emotions, they possess laughter and crying, normal characteristics that must be well managed.
Children's abilities
Children possess elasticity, defined as the ability to recover from pain caused by interaction with our environment; this concept is closely associated with the flexibility of behavior, which allows the child to learn behaviors based on any pattern of socialization to which he is exposed, this being a specific characteristic as human beings and a strong indication of mental health.
The little ones possess a natural sense of freedom and when they feel safe, they move spontaneously. Both freedom and spontaneity form the structure of the game. Therefore, free play is the form of natural happiness for the child and also to transcend the repetition of the habit, so that life is a free and spontaneous adventure.
The game stage
Childhood is a stage of free and creative play and where the human being acquires the ability to play so that, as adults, they produce those "leaps of imagination" to which great inventions and discoveries are due.
Children are unique, because they have a sense of integrity, of being. Every child like this is special, unique and wonderful. They are predisposed, by nature, to love, to affection. The child must first be loved and then be able to love.
At Snow White we understand these basic abilities and needs of children. We know that we must take care of the child in his needs of dependence, so "confidence" must be generated, which will strengthen his distinctive conditions of thought, imagination, feeling, competence, skills, decision, disposition, activity, being and purpose. Also in the teaching of Skiing.
Snow White Children El Niño and Skiing
Snow White thus participates in the preparation of children for the next stages of life (codependency, independence and interdependence) where she will achieve identity, love, work and care of life through new identities, competencies, skills, purposes, options and confidence, it is essential for her instructors.
More than skiing, our staff celebrates through the teaching of their classes seek to satisfy the natural expectation, optimism, naivety, management of emotions, dependence, elasticity, uniqueness, free play and love because to tell the truth, before the playful slide through the pending stockings or lines of dorsal maxims, the most important thing is to love them!
The technical aspects of children's skiing in the Manual of El Niño and Skiing
Skiing means sliding.A ski slide imposes an attitude, which must be natural, central and "loose"; with a few exceptions, a rigid and systematic interpretation of technical or methodological progression will not be necessary, but it will be enough to achieve a good attitude in maximum balance, always through natural and simple movements.
The little one, due to his physical constitution, assumes when skiing, a delayed position, which must be rectified to avoid the incorporation of vices or habits that in the future will be difficult to eradicate. The ski teacher working with children must have a great methodical and didactic capacity and clear pedagogical concepts in addition to always keeping in mind the teaching philosophy of Snow White maintaining in the child the expectation, optimism, naivety, management of emotions, dependence, elasticity, uniqueness, free play and love.
The teacher will create a safe and collaborative environment for learners to participate in individual and joint learning, sparking interest in technical progress along with fun and joy.
Learning, which we describe in our small manual of El Niño and Skiing, framed in a pleasant class and with a variety of didactic material, is faster. For Snow White it will be a safe play area, where the child feels protected and has a series of elements for the development of the greatest number of playful aspects is fundamental, especially in the initiation classes or first classes. This chosen area or track will have a slight inclination finished in a perfect plane.
Incorporating specific support elements, the work of the ski teacher is facilitated and learning is more enjoyable, fun and effective.
"Befriend" the team.
It is very important that the adult detects before going out to the track any anomaly in the equipment and clothing.
Therefore, teaching begins with the equipment and transport of the material. In this regard:
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How to transport the equipment:
For children under the age of six, carrying skis over their shoulders becomes problematic. It is easier for the little ones to transport the equipment by passing their hands through the straps of the poles and taking each ski by its fixings.
Another method is to take the skis and poles well accommodated in a lump and carry them "baby type".
In any case it is advisable not to fatigue the children by carrying them with the skis, trying to take them as long or as much as possible. If there is an over-demand or they have many difficulties to transport the material, they can carry only one ski or load them in sections.
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Equipment Review:
The adult or teacher must detect, before going out on the track, any anomaly in the equipment and clothing:
- Check the proper functioning and adjustment of the fixation, that the boots are well placed (it is common to see boots with the hooks facing inwards) and adjusted in such a way that they allow children to walk as comfortably as possible.
- Check the skis so that they are in accordance with the height of the child.
- Discard scooters (plastic skis without edges).
- Ensure that clothing is in accordance with the prevailing climate; on sunny days it is essential to wear sunglasses or blizzard.
First steps.
It consists of THREE (3) stages:
1. Adaptation itself:
Ideally between 2 to 4 years old (although they can be older), children learn the basic forms of sports locomotion such as walking, climbing, climbing, running, jumping, etc.
Through daily contact with the environment, children capture and learn and through the technique of "guided discovery", they look for solutions to the proposals of their ski teacher.
The acquisition of skills, attitudes and movement skills forms the basis of the child's further development and health. Therefore the skiing experience is focused on the development of these aspects and not so much on technical gestures.
It is important that skiing is incorporated into the world of children's "natural movements" at this particular stage of their development. As the team in the sport (at this stage, "game") of skiing hinders the naturalness of the movements, it forces to look for new motor solutions which benefits the child in all aspects of his progress and bodily abilities. However, it is ensured that this process does not involve a harmful overexertion.
Trials that end in success are gladly repeated. Those who fail are soon and forever forgotten.
2. Adaptation to the environment:
Usually young children are immersed in a pleasant atmosphere in their home. By similarity, in the Snow White nursery they are given maximum comfort and therefore perceive the outside world as something pleasant until they start skiing.
Knowing that they will encounter an adverse winter environment of cold and snow (producing sensations not entirely pleasant at first), the adaptation must be done with tact, prudence, common sense and even under a "free game" and controlled.
Under no circumstances will young children be exposed to the exposure of extreme weather conditions because the trauma created by the intense cold can change interests and motivation to the point of not wanting to repeat an experience in similar environments.
3. Adaptation to skis:
During this stage the help of the teacher to achieve success is fundamental and its success lies in the fact that the games and teaching topics have to be interrupted or resumed according to the situation of each moment and the reactions of the children, both individually and in the dynamics of groups.
Children should never be forced into any activity.
Typical exercises at this stage may be as follows:
- Walk with a single ski on the poleless plane and circumventing obstacles such as poles and hoops. Slide driven by the teacher grabbing the canes of the same.
- Sliding on very light slopes. Travel a circuit in the plane combining sliding with walking.
- Descent with suggestions of different actions on top of the skis (transport, pick up from the ground, crouch, jump …).
- Direct descent with braking actions ("The English Chick", "Clock – clock", others).
- Direct descent with changes of direction descent of slight slopes with the combination of all the above aspects.
More fun.
After the initial stages, children can advance in their skiing always with games that incorporate technical gestures and motor skills according to the following detail:
- Exercises for travel.
- Games for:
- First descents.
- Direct descent.
- Work on leg independence.
- Cuña ("casita").
- Initiation to the climb.
- The wedge turn.
- Jumps.
- Special methodologies.
Leave us a comment or suggestions of your experience teaching children!
