Childrens Activities Today

Remember when children's playtime activities amounted to a game of tag in the playground, a football kick around with jumpers for goalposts or a bit of tree climbing? All great fun in days gone by but maybe these things just don't do it for today's cool youngsters. The options open to the youth of today seem altogether more exciting and adventurous. Indoor climbing, tree-top trails, surfing and indoor skiing are all choices on the menu now, so the ante has been well and truly upped!

The way parents allow their children to play these days has changed quite significantly over the past 30 years or so. Whereas in the past children would be allowed to play in the street or to venture off into nearby woods to play for hours on end, today's unwritten rules seem to dictate very different ground rules. Of course there is more traffic on the roads which has curtailed many street games but perception and peer pressure is another factor. Parents are coerced into acting in a more responsible manner which often means knowing exactly where their children are all the time. Perhaps that has created a need to provide more excitement and the latest recreation centres popping up all over the country provide exactly that in controlled and safely managed environments.

Once children get a taste for something like indoor climbing walls or indoor skiing centres, there is often no looking back. The thrill provided by being able to ski or snowboard all year round in the UK, regardless of weather conditions outside, is almost unique in Europe at the moment. Even the traditional skiing countries such as France, Austria and Switzerland can only provide summer skiing in a few high altitude glacier resorts. Holland has a couple of indoor snow resorts but the UK seems to be leading the way with several indoor winter sports centres operating in different parts of the UK, with more planned for the future. Earlier this year one opened with striking distance of London, bringing indoor winter sports to the South of England.

The Snow Centre which opened in Hemel Hempstead at the beginning of the summer has children's activities fairly high on its agenda and provides sessions and instruction programmes for all ages from 3 years upwards. The centre creates its own snow using the latest snow generation technology and provides two slopes, serviced by a network of four lifts, including the same POMA button lifts you find in the best ski resorts. Children can choose from a range of activities including skiing, tobogganing or snowboarding and there is even a snow playground in a cordoned-off area for toddlers.

Children who have sampled the slopes before can go straight into an open session as long as they meet the required skill levels set out by the centre, while others can use one of the many instruction options to improve their skills first. The centre has many instructors who provide one-to-one and group classes. The Snow Centre also offers options for packages of lessons and special rates during school holidays.