Post by laurasnowbird on Jan 25, 2009 13:01:15 GMT -5
OK, CC, you made me think this was possible for Ethan when you shared your stories of Christoper skiing!
We don't have an adaptive ski program in my area....the nearest is several hours away, so it hasn't worked out for us to participate in that one.
I'm learning to ski myself, and asked the lady who runs our area skiing program if she knew anyone with skill in training kids with special needs. She asked me to let her think about it, then called me a couple of days later and had a lesson set up for Ethan.
I'm soooo sorry that I don't have any pictures to share. They asked me to stay out of sight, which was hard. I watched from an observation deck quite a ways away.
But he was amazing! Micah (the young man who was teaching him) had incredible patience, and he acted like a big brother. He made it so much fun for Ethan that he loved it! When they were going down one time, they fell, and Micah was rolling around with Ethan in the snow letting Ethan jump on him and just generally have fun. They actually got as far as the third hill in the beginner area, and he took Ethan up on the TOW ROPE!!! I was freaking out.
I took him and Victoria back later in the day, and went up and down the hill a number of times with him myself. I was in my regular boots and went down the hill beside him with him holding my ski pole horizontally across the front of his body. I let go of the pole a number of times, and he stayed up and never fell! I think we have a skiier in the making. The best part was he loved it, and he was soooo proud of himself. He told his grandma that he did it "by myself", LOL!
Anyway, thanks CC for sharing Chris' stories, it made us aspire to this for Ethan. Anybody else who is thinking about this, I'd encourage you to give it a try!
We don't have an adaptive ski program in my area....the nearest is several hours away, so it hasn't worked out for us to participate in that one.
I'm learning to ski myself, and asked the lady who runs our area skiing program if she knew anyone with skill in training kids with special needs. She asked me to let her think about it, then called me a couple of days later and had a lesson set up for Ethan.
I'm soooo sorry that I don't have any pictures to share. They asked me to stay out of sight, which was hard. I watched from an observation deck quite a ways away.
But he was amazing! Micah (the young man who was teaching him) had incredible patience, and he acted like a big brother. He made it so much fun for Ethan that he loved it! When they were going down one time, they fell, and Micah was rolling around with Ethan in the snow letting Ethan jump on him and just generally have fun. They actually got as far as the third hill in the beginner area, and he took Ethan up on the TOW ROPE!!! I was freaking out.
I took him and Victoria back later in the day, and went up and down the hill a number of times with him myself. I was in my regular boots and went down the hill beside him with him holding my ski pole horizontally across the front of his body. I let go of the pole a number of times, and he stayed up and never fell! I think we have a skiier in the making. The best part was he loved it, and he was soooo proud of himself. He told his grandma that he did it "by myself", LOL!
Anyway, thanks CC for sharing Chris' stories, it made us aspire to this for Ethan. Anybody else who is thinking about this, I'd encourage you to give it a try!
&
Susan, Proud mom of Michael (32), Justin (25) Emily (22ds), and Jordan (20).
That sounds like tunz of fun!!!! {{{{{{ETHAN}}}}}
