Miraculously I watched my son swimming. My mouth was agape and I was speechless for about two minutes. This was all thanks to my husband.
It started with a near accident. Now that we've relocated to a condo with access to an indoor pool, we've been taking daily dips. On one occasion I was happily floating and didn't notice that my husband was doing a lap, leaving Badger standing at the edge of the pool. Vier later explained that he was confident Badger wouldn't do anything on his own because he knew how deep the water was. Contrary to this assumption, Badger thought I would catch him and jumped into the pool. Vier noticed this but he was at the other end of the pool. He never swam faster!
This was when he noticed that Badger didn't go under. He was kicking and flailing his arms for dear life, managing to keep his head above the water until Vier rushed to his rescue. Vier decided that Badger was ready to swim.
The next time we went swimming, Vier told Badger to swim to mommy. I was skeptical. But swim he did. He was able to cross three feet to me! I was amazed. He was crying by the time he reached me but he did it all on his own. I scolded Vier for possibly traumatizing him but Vier insisted that, with time, Badger would get used to it without all my "babying."
We've modified the activity by having him bring his toys (around 5 to 6 interlocking blocks) to the pool. I let the toys float a little farther away from him and he's motivated to swim and "rescue" his toys. It's absolutely amazing! It's like watching him take his first steps. He has good form: kicking feet, scooping arms (to get him to his destination). Not a breast stroke yet but on the way! He wasn't just dog paddling in place. He was swimming! And once he assembled his toys, he lost no time in getting absorbed in his imaginative play: transformers at sea or speed boats racing.
I guess when he gets older my joke to him will be: You learned to swim before you learned to go to the toilet! Haha! An athlete in the making.
Next challenge? Potty training!
(Dec. 28, 2009)
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianauer/2599299352/
2 comments:
Congrats! My 3 kids also learned how to swim on their own when we relocated in a village with a pool. Galing ng mga bata!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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