Daddy swimming lessons

Swimming lessons w/ Daddy

The trick to teaching your own kid (reply to Kat's comment):

It's all about the DAILY one on one time. I'm no expert since he's my first "own" kid I've taught. Oh, and he's not swimming yet really. I'm just optimistic. Ideally I would make it even more of a routine. This morning I asked him if he wanted to go in the pool and he replied "pants, pool, bath, bed." This is because each evening, we put him in his swimmy (he's really into "pants" which could be pants, shorts, or a swimsuit), then I warn him that he will have to take a bath and go to bed right after. He still requests to watch a DVD before bed, but I remind him that we had already agreed on pool, bath, then bed. So this morning, he thought he was way ahead of me. I didn't make him go to bed in the middle of the morning though.

So what I was trying to say, is that Ideally I would treat his daily pool time like a real lesson. We could save the play time for after the kicks, big arm circles, choo choo train, floating, dive sticks, etc. Now I kinda ask him if he wants to do it, and he does! I don't want him to hate me. It's ok if swim lesson kids hate me for the first week, b/c I don't see them 24/7 and I know that they'll love me the next week (or the one after that). Parents aren't paying me to just blow bubbles w/ their babies. They want results. I make it fun, but structured. I keep it fun w/ Dylan. He went down and got the dive sticks from the steps last night. I was so pleased that I didn't have to convince him. He was determined. He asked me to do it and when I said it was his turn, he hesitated, then just went for it. He got it 1st try!