For a long time, I’ve been feeling guilty because I don’t have the patience to “teach” Sonyea how to do things. We are fighting over tying her shoes, we fight over how to read, we fight over how to practice letters. It’s a never ending battle it seems and our personalities are so close together, I fear we’ll fight the rest of our lives (oh boy, I’m scared of the teenage years!!!). I wonder how the heck people homeschool their own children when I can barely have the patience for a game of “go fish.”
Sometimes, the best way to learn how to swim is to throw them in the pool, right? Maybe, that was my last resort.
I tried taking her gently in the pool and holding on to her and asking her to STAND UP. Just put your feet down on the bottom of the pool and walk around. Oh boy did this child FREAK OUT!!! I can understand being scared but she will not trust me enough to learn that I will NOT put her in danger!!
After a hissy fit and some pinching on her part, I put her on the ladder and told her to sit down, calm down and when I was done swimming we’d go home. We visited with a friend we haven’t seen in ages because our school schedules just conflicted.
I ignored her and hung out with Lisa and the kids while floating around with Zia some (she’s another one that won’t trust me). After about 5 minutes or so, Sonyea stood up, walked over to the ladder and climbed down the steps. I pretty much ignored her and let her go about her business. She was VERY excited when she realized she could touch the bottom of the pool and WALK AROUND!!! With the help of the arm floaties she learned how to swim in a heartbeat! Picked up her feet and started to float around! I’m so proud of her for doing it FINALLY!! She couldn’t get enough of the big pool after that!!
Zia tried to carry that 20 pound exercise ball. She really did. Couldn’t even roll it!!
Where’s Callie you ask? We were pretty shocked ourselves! She asked to take a nap shortly after we got in the pool and she pretty much slept the entire time we were there. Poor peanut was exhausted. Slept right on through lunch too! Hoping to hang out again after our vacation!!
