Downhill Skiing Tips for your First Time
February 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Getting out and doing downhill skiing can quickly change you and your kids from waiting for winter to end to waiting for more snow to fall.
This year we took the challenge and bought a package for skiing. It contains 6 weeks of lessons and passes, plus three free passes to use whenever we want.
After the first trip, our 10 year old daughter was ready to quit. Luckily, we’d made the financial commitment and we were going back even if it killed us.
Now, 6 trips later, it is her favorite sport and we are thinking we should have bought a bigger package. To help you get through that first ski trip, here are some tips we learned the hard way.
- Boots go on and off much easier if you fully loosen them. I mean take off the binding so it is flapping around. We struggled the first couple of times because we did not know how loose they go.
- The first time skiing stinks. It does for everyone and you just have to go back and try it again. Once you start to get it, you will love it.
- Take lessons. They usually offer fairly inexpensive lessons and they really do help you get the basics down so you can start enjoying it.
- Don’t go someplace where they only have a tow rope. Probably the thing that made our first trip the most miserable was that we had to use the tow rope. It is a cable that has metal bars and you hang on as it drags you up the mountain.
- Make sure your books are tight. If you are not snug in those boots you have much less control.
- Keep turning. If you can keep turning, you will eventually be going up hill and slow down.
- Go regularly when you are learning and you really do pick it up fast. I can say I tried the black diamond once, and paid. But I feel great on the intermediate hills. Our first trip is a distant memory.
- Use Goggles – If it is at all windy and cold, using goggles keeps the ice and snow from blowing in your eyes. We bought a pair for $15 and it was a good investment.
If you are visiting us, I hope you have made a commitement to add more adventure to your life, and downhill skiing is a great and fun adventure.
Your Family Enterprise
February 16, 2008 | 1 Comment
One of the greatest mistakes our schools make is the lack of focus on finance. Not balancing your checkbook or managing your charge cards, but how to create wealth. When someone complains about the economy or the job market, what are they complaining about? They are complaining that there are not more individuals that are skilled at creating businesses, jobs and wealth. All business starts with individuals.
Family Entrepreneurships is one solution to this problem. We do not mean family entrepreneurship as in starting a family restaurant. We are talking about setting off on a journey to learn how to be entrepreneurs together.
First let’s look at the word Entrepreneurship. It is not the same as business owner. An entrepreneur is skilled at creating wealth. A business owner should be skilled at managing. If you are a family of entrepreneurs, you are using your skills to produce wealth, but not necessarily opening up and office or hiring staff.
This is an important distinction. My first attempt at family entrepreneurship was my 8 year old starting a business. She had a lot of fun, but the difficulty of building a business instead of focusing on building wealth hurt our success.
Start Simple and Learn Together
The first step to creating an environment is to start very simple and grow. Your primary goal is wealth creation, even if it is $50 a month.
There are plenty of business plan templates online. Write a business plan that focuses on wealth creation – but keep it to only a few pages. If you need more pages, the idea is too complex for your first idea.
Your business plan should answer the following questions:
- How will we make money?
- How will we find customers?
- Why would customers by from us?
- What are our start-up expenses?
- How much time does each person need to put in?
- What are each person’s responsibilities?
- What do you currently spend money on that could become a business expense?
The benefits of having a while family involved in a successful enterprise are big. There are substantial tax advantages, there is the learning your family is getting, there is freedom if you build your business to the point where it becomes a reliable cash machine and you are building and investment for the future.
The key thing to remember is you are going to have many more benefits if it actually has some income. Don’t start something that is going to take a year to see a dollar unless you already have other money making ventures running. Simplicity and an income focus are what is going to sustain your energy and contribute to your family entrepreneurship success.
Ice Skating with 2 Year Olds
February 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Taking a 2 year old ice skating can be tricky. When you go, you may be there for 5 minutes or two hours. It just depends on the reaction of your child after they first set foot onto the ice.
Our first trip we did not take safety gear – imagining that we’d be there for a few minutes and never let her go. It turned out she was there for almost two hours and did some independent skating right away. Our advice is take a bike helmet and any other desired safety gear, because you never know.
How do you get your young child interested in ice skating?
Our daughter Maya watched ice skating on television first. She loved the outfits and the skating and wanted to go right away. We actually used this as a reward for potty training – you can’t skate as well wearing a diaper.
Six things you can do to help your young child get a fast start in ice skating:
- Get stiff skates to support their ankles or cut a cardboard tube to insert into the skate and give them more ankle support.
- After one or two trips, buy them skates. You can get great deals on skates at a used sporting goods store and they quickly pay for themselves. Then you just trade them in when you need a bigger size.
- Practice marching before you go. The first thing they will do is march on the ice with their skates. Later they will glide.
- Take a skilled skater with you. You cannot just shove a new skater out there. Someone has to be with them until they develop great skills.
- Take pictures, clap and encourage their small successes. They will love it.
- Build a lifestyle where the whole family can go during the day when there are not crowds. Doing things during the day, during the work week is a great advantage.
This is one of those great workouts that you and your kids can enjoy all their life.
Opening Doors with Music & Art
February 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
If you are waiting for public schools to turn your kids into great musicians or artists, you are in trouble. Creativity and expression, even if it is not a chosen profession, is a key component to great Lifestyle Design.
Adventure is the cornerstone of Lifestlye
February 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Family Travel and Adventure is the cornerstone of making a lifestyle change that frees you up to enjoy life. This category has articles about where to go with kids, how to take more trips and how to enjoy locations with the whole family.
Family Enrichment
February 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Everyone should commit to life long learning. What better example for your kids than to show them that everyone still has things to learn? Look for ways to enrich each member of the family with a lifestyle of life long learning.
Family Health & Fitness
February 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The family health and fitness category is geared towards getting the whole family involved in better diets and more physical activities. This category will include sports, diet, fitness and activities that will help craft a family culture of health.
What is Fast Family?
February 8, 2008 | 1 Comment
Fast Family is a category of articles for fast moving families on the go. Articles in this category explain how do you optimize your time and get the most out of life.
Why Family Entrepreneurship?
February 8, 2008 | 1 Comment
Family Lifestlye Design is an online magazine committed to helping families live the lives they want to now. Not after the kids have moved off to college.
Family Entrepreneurship is an important category because owning a business is one tool to create more opportunities for travel, for financial freedom and for empowering every member of the family to be more independant.
This category will focus on things you can do to invest and grow a business with the entire family involved and building wealth while having more free time.