Earlier this year, M4 announced that he would like swimming lessons. Wha??!! Well, he had been getting much more comfortable in the water this summer and was even going UNDERWATER! So I was very thrilled to jump right on the bandwagon and hire a college girl to give the kids some lessons.
The first lesson went well...he actually did MUCH more than I expected. Except, toward the end, when she was having him "glide" from her to the wall, and he would get to within about a foot of the wall, I could see the look of terror in his eyes.
So guess what? Lesson #2? Hysterics...I mean, hysterical crying! Like, not-in-control-of-his-body sobbing. So we stopped that lesson early. The college girl looked so completely at a loss as to what to do with this behavior. (Ha ha!! Poor girl! Just a preview of your future life!)
Lesson #3 reportedly went OK (Dad took him). No hysterics despite M4's admittance to being nervous about it. In fact, when I was at his school one day, I noticed a worksheet the kids had filled out hanging on the wall. They had to complete this sentence, "I get butterflies in my stomach when...". M4's completion was, "...when I have swimming lessons."
Cut to lesson #4, this past Sunday. Things seemed fine, no hysterics. Afterward, what to my wondering ears should I hear but "I love swimming lessons!" and "This was the best day of my life!" and "Sometimes when you try something you don't really like it, but then you keep on trying and then you like it!" and continued assertions that "This is the most awesomest day of my life!!"
So even though he had negotiated for "only two more lessons," perhaps we can just keep swimming.
2 comments:
you'd better write that down, the bit about when you don't think you'll like something, keep trying! to pull out and use on that little M4 another time! Have a feeling you'll need to remind him!
I keep hoping M3 and M4 might visit Summer Camp Schlax in Maine some summer (soon) . We have some boats, so confidence swimming will be great.
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