April 23, 2005 - Saturday
The boys had there last swimming lesson of this second sessions this morning and neither is ready to move up to the next level. I'd have been surprised with anything else. Jeremy is still happy as a clam in the water and seems to do everything his teacher asks, but he just doesn't have the dexterity yet. That's fine. At least he's comfortable in the water.

It occurs to me that it's possible, having watched Harry these last few weeks that his first teacher was too generous in moving him up to from Pike to Eel, because he's been a behind the rest of his class (of 5) this time. He swims pretty fast and well forward, but he's not nearly as comfortable as the class floating and kicking backward and he's been the only one, after the first time or so a few weeks ago, who has refused to jumped into the pool without holding his teacher's hands. There have been a couple of girls in his class who have happily jumped off the 2-foot or so platform without assistance. Harry hasn't jumped off the side of the pool without being held. So, over the last week I've tried to encourage him a little. I asked Harry way he didn't feel comfortable jumping and his answer was because he'd go under the water and if he did that he would drown.

It's hard to know how literal to take kids when they say things like that, but in this case I wouldn't be too surprised if Harry had actually confused this scary concept of drowning with putting his head under water. It would have been irrational, of course, because he had actually swam completely under a floating "noodle" bar in an earlier class and that's something of which he remains quite proud. But, fear is often irrational. So, we talked about holding his breath. We talked about how being scared is very normal and very smart, because it's our bodies way of telling us that it doesn't want to get hurt. But, we also talked about being brave and trusting the teachers and how "lessons" are the best time to try scary things and to learn. We talked about canoeing and what would happen if we tipped over (that's something we've talked about before in the context of being safe) and that learning how to "come back up" from under water would make him a lot safer. It was a good conversation; the kind of conversation that a father can have with a son that's makes him feel like he's got something to offer the boy. And, today at his lesson, Harry jumped in. AAs he came out of the pool he looked in my direction and I gave him a big thumbs up sign. He gave me one back with a big smile. That's parenting heaven. Admittedly, the first time he did it the teacher actually held his hand from down in the water. The second time she was down there, but was just there to catch him and make him feel safe. But that's what he and I had talked about: trying it here where it would be safe. I'm just so happy that he did it once before the lessons end for the season so he could go away proud rather than having been too nervous to match his classmates.


Comments, Opinions?