Keeping kids warm and healthy in cold climes

Come December, Mr John Tan and his family will be heading to Japan's Nagano. The prefecture played host to the 1998 Winter Olympics and boasts the highest mountain ranges in the country.

- Elisa Chia

Mr Tan, 42, an entrepreneur who runs several businesses including a travel company, and his lawyer-wife Maryanne Soo, 46, have been going on snow holidays with their five children regularly.

The upcoming trip will be the eighth ski season for their firstborn Cameron, 13, and the third one for their youngest child, Quinn, six.

Their other kids are Summer, 12; Cory, 10; and Sienna, eight.

"Our kids love the snow. In fact, I've not met a child who doesn't," Mr Tan says. "Once they see the snow, they forget the cold and want to play."

His children started taking ski lessons after they turned four, the minimum age recommended by most instructors, he adds.

"Skiing is a great way for kids to build resilience. It's not a sport they can learn in a day. They learn to fall, pick themselves up and keep trying. Once they get the hang of it, they want to go fast and get better."

It is also one of few sports that bond parents and children. Unlike football, for instance, which usually does not interest the mum and girls, skiing brings the whole family together, he says.

On their trip to Nagano, they will be joined by other families from Singapore who have signed up for the holiday experience under Mr Tan's Yamayama Travel company.

It is the first time the company is offering a winter itinerary. A six-night stay with a ski programme for two adults and two kids, aged 12 and below, costs about $6,000.

Mr Tan offered three travel periods in December for booking and had hoped to draw eight families for each trip. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

"I was expecting about 24 families and I have 70 now," he says, adding that he has had to increase the group size for each trip.