Zach didn’t want to ski. He fell over too many times. And then he took off his skis, supposedly to get into a better position to put them back on. Of course, getting them back on was tough too, so he wanted to quit.
I think he did quit at one point. He went inside.
Later when he came out again, supposedly wanting to try again, we tried again. But again, the same sequence repeated itself. He wanted to quit and go back inside.
At that point, I somehow remembered seeing other people fly down the hills holding their kids between their skis. I figured I’d give it a try. I put Zach’s skis between mine and off we went down the slope.
He immediately liked it. “Whoa, that was awesome,” he said.
That’s when I realized, maybe just remembered, how important it is to experience the fun before trying to learn, especially when it’s hard to learn.
Zach and I continued to ski down that bunny slope together. Slowly, I started asking him to stand more on his own instead of leaning on my hands so much. I started slowing down to let him get more of a grip on the ground.
Until at one point halfway down the hill, he decided he wanted to try going the rest of the way on his own. That was the beginning of his solo career.
