She Swims
After the sadness surrounding the daycare switch-up, it's incredibly uplifting to see Margo slay some personal demons.
Some of you may remember that swimming lessons got the better of Margo when she was eight months old. She was panicked and confused, and after two minutes, let me know about her dissatisfaction with everything swimming related.
We decided to give it another go, because not knowing how to swim is not good, but actually being afraid of the water is a horrible thing to live with your whole life.
Different pool this time, a little older. There's a long ramp at the Plant pool so that kids can wade in like at the beach. I found that the classes were better suited to dealing with childrens' fears and discomfort of the pool environment. Margo was into the initial intro, the getting wet part, but as soon as we started getting into deeper water, the panic ensued, and the arms and legs started flailing and she started with the shrill screams.
I was on my way out of the pool when one of the instructors (there were two for the first class) came over and suggested a few things. My gratitude goes out to that instructor, because I was ready to give up on swimming lessons, not knowing how to calm Margo down. Instead, Margo spent the class floating on a large foam mat, playing with Duplo blocks.
The next class, still a little panicky, Margo graduated to smaller and smaller flotation devices until it was only me supporting her. And then I pushed a little too far and tried floating her on her back, which she doesn't even like in the bath... that undid a lot of the progress, but something still stuck.
Today was the third class, and with the calming effect of a toy boat, we actually participated in the formal class, mostly actions that get the kids used to different positions in the water set to childrens' rhymes. And then came this major breakthrough, like, I mean a major breakthrough where she was loving bobbing up and down, laughing after she would come up from having bobbed her face under water, and she even went down the water slide and splashed into the water.
I don't get it. I don't understand the massive, profound sea-change in her attitude. I've mentioned how fun it is to watch her get things - last week, she was counting things 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, and know she's counting (re: reciting) up to 10 (always without the number 4, for some reason). Anyway, that's the kind of progress that I'm used to; fast-paced, but over the course of a week. This is the first time where I can literally say that I blinked and everything had changed. One minute, she was freaking out because her boat had strayed off, and within seconds, her legs were egg-beatering away and she was pushing herself off the edge, sliding into the pool.
You never cease to amaze us, ma chère.
- Michel
Some of you may remember that swimming lessons got the better of Margo when she was eight months old. She was panicked and confused, and after two minutes, let me know about her dissatisfaction with everything swimming related.
We decided to give it another go, because not knowing how to swim is not good, but actually being afraid of the water is a horrible thing to live with your whole life.
Different pool this time, a little older. There's a long ramp at the Plant pool so that kids can wade in like at the beach. I found that the classes were better suited to dealing with childrens' fears and discomfort of the pool environment. Margo was into the initial intro, the getting wet part, but as soon as we started getting into deeper water, the panic ensued, and the arms and legs started flailing and she started with the shrill screams.
I was on my way out of the pool when one of the instructors (there were two for the first class) came over and suggested a few things. My gratitude goes out to that instructor, because I was ready to give up on swimming lessons, not knowing how to calm Margo down. Instead, Margo spent the class floating on a large foam mat, playing with Duplo blocks.
The next class, still a little panicky, Margo graduated to smaller and smaller flotation devices until it was only me supporting her. And then I pushed a little too far and tried floating her on her back, which she doesn't even like in the bath... that undid a lot of the progress, but something still stuck.
Today was the third class, and with the calming effect of a toy boat, we actually participated in the formal class, mostly actions that get the kids used to different positions in the water set to childrens' rhymes. And then came this major breakthrough, like, I mean a major breakthrough where she was loving bobbing up and down, laughing after she would come up from having bobbed her face under water, and she even went down the water slide and splashed into the water.
I don't get it. I don't understand the massive, profound sea-change in her attitude. I've mentioned how fun it is to watch her get things - last week, she was counting things 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, and know she's counting (re: reciting) up to 10 (always without the number 4, for some reason). Anyway, that's the kind of progress that I'm used to; fast-paced, but over the course of a week. This is the first time where I can literally say that I blinked and everything had changed. One minute, she was freaking out because her boat had strayed off, and within seconds, her legs were egg-beatering away and she was pushing herself off the edge, sliding into the pool.
You never cease to amaze us, ma chère.
- Michel
Labels: developments, event
This entry was posted
on Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 12:58 a.m..
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8:39 a.m.Those curls! Those eyes! Those polka dots! That progress! What's not to love?
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