PARK CITY, UTAH -- Hindsight is always 20-20, especially when you’re talking about teaching kids to ski. Like a lot of parents who love to ski, I figured I could teach my children myself. And I tried. But looking back now, I wish I’d put them in group lessons much sooner, when they were 6 or 7, blank slates just waiting to be written on.

It took me a while to realize that when your kids are skiing with an enthusiastic young instructor — slip-sliding through the trees, puffing fresh air, whooping and hollering and pretending that small bumps are Olympic obstacles — they learn in a hurry, and they love it, too. Like any sport, an inspiring, encouraging coach and a week on the slopes teamed up with other kids are a winning combination.

Later on, standing in line to enroll my 12-year-old, I discovered that for many parents, group lessons for kids have another benefit: The are as much about giving parents some much-needed time on their own as they are about keeping the kids happy and busy. Which, in this busy age, is a bonus.

But some ski schools are better organized than others, and more successful, too. They don’t print brochures, hire instructors, and wing it from there. They decide on a core mission, set specific goals and write a plan to make it happen.

So how does a parent find one of these top-rated ski schools?

With no classes to sit in on, textbooks to read or lesson plans to review, you have to do some digging, compare the differences and see what works for you. While there’s no official ranking for children’s ski programs, parents’ comments, ski blogs and websites offer a clue. Here’s how some of the most popular — and praised — ski schools succeed.

For Tom Pettigrew, director of Skier Services at Park City Resort, small classes are the single factor that sets the stage for successful group learning. “We keep our group lessons at five or fewer children, no exceptions. Ever,” he says. “If we can’t divide the kids evenly, we’ll assign an instructor to three kids, or two, or even one,” he says. That way every child is guaranteed what amounts to an mini-private lesson and individual coaching.

The advantages are many, he believes. Small classes make it easy for instructors to get to know each child, and to earn that child’s trust, essential for learning new skills in what is often a scary mountain setting. The kids will ski off the summit, cross steep slopes on a narrow cat-track, and snowplow in the trees. “Small classes are a no-brainer,” says Pettigrew. “That’s why college students who pick a small school with classes of 30 do better than they would in a huge school with 400-seat lecture halls.”

Small classes also means more of them, which makes it easier to group together kids of similar ages, temperament, confidence levels and ski skills. “Say that 100 kids have signed up,” says Pettigrew. “With five in a class you’d have 20 possible groups. If the kids feel as if they’re hanging out with friends, they’ll have more fun.”

How do group lessons compare with private lessons, generally considered by many parents — and skiers — as the gold standard?

“I never recommend private lessons for kids,” says Nancy Gray, senior instructor at the Ski and Snowboard Kids’ School at Steamboat Resort, Colorado.