Ryan and I took the boy to his swimming lesson yesterday. He PROMISED us that he wouldn't chicken out for the diving board again... So he got acclimated by floating around in the deep end, and because these lessons were during open pool time, he saw people he knew and would like to know. He got a bit distracted...
No, you can NOT just play on the rope! Obey your teacher!
And then for the big moment... he got on the diving board and our cameras were ready. There was not enough video room on my camera to record the whole thing.
So I only got a small video of it and decided on pics for the rest.
It took forever...
click for a larger pic.
His teacher ended up having to drop him off the edge of the board.
She is SO patient with him!
He has promised us that he'll do it himself today, so we'll see... and have our cameras ready.
4 comments:
I remember when son3 was taking his first swimming lessons with the woman everyone fondly referred to as the Swim Nazi (kids learned to swim or she refunded your money) You also had to sign a no interference clause or she would not let you watch the lessons. (I found out why) One kid was scared to death to put his face in the water. She was holding him, counted to 3 and they went under for a millisecond. He came up sputtering and she said they were going to do it again under his extreme protests. Her answer "You can hold your breath while we do this or come up choking again be we are going under" I was glad my son was not the first kid. He learned by example to do what she told them on the first command because he would have been the sputtering kid. NO patience with anyone but by crackie they all learned to swim__fast!
I assisted a swimming teacher at the Y when I was a teenager, and the parents were only allowed to watch from a gallery. Like Anne, we took no prisoners--kids did what we showed them on their own, or with us pulling them along, but NOT doing it was NOT an option. Not sure this would fly today. It must have worked, though, because years later, I came home from college in the summer to find that one of my most recalcitrant students was a lifeguard at the local lake!
I used the no parent policy in my dance teaching days. I never allowed parents in my classroom. (There was a window they could look through if they felt so inclined.) If a kid wanted to leave to "go talk to Mommy," they were told they were free to leave, but they couldn't come back, and they most certainly would not be getting a treat after class if they didn't finish the whole class. Our studio believed that if your kid is not old enough to be in the room without you, he/she is not old enough to be taking a class in the first place. Plus, the ever present video cameras are distracting--maybe not to the parent's own kids, but certainly to others in the class, and I didn't allow them. It was even more stringent in the advanced classes--we told parents that class was when a student needed to feel comfortable looking lousy while trying to master something new. And while your kid may feel comfortable messing up in front of you, another student might not.
Go Leon!
Good for Leon. I give it one maybe two more times and you won;t keep him off the board. My kids all had the no nonsense swim instructors as well and all are really strong swimmers to this day. When I coached, if I had an interfering parent, I would remind them that I was a volunteer and if they thought they could do better, I'd gladly share or give up the job. Usually they kept their mouth shut. I did get a couple jump in, realize it was not the same coaching a group and not just focusing on your own kids. A few ended up staying on as coaches too.
Post a Comment