How I teach kids to swim even when they are crying.

As a swimming instructor for over 30 years crying kids is a real thing in my life daily. I don’t take it personal. Kids crying is a fact of life, I had four kids in five years and that experience as made me  immune to crying. I hear crying and I understand why they are crying but I keep going thru the lesson as if they aren’t crying or my favorite ” encourage them to cry loader. Letting them if they cry they will learn twice as fast. Telling them it’s ok to cry because crying makes you feel better. There are many reasons kids cry in lessons , water in ears, eyes in the water, blowing bubbles, the deep end, it goes on and on. but his is not the first or last place your child will out right scream bloody murder. I find wearing googles helps a lot with fear.

It’s o.k., it’s normal based on why some children scream bloody murder all the time and some don’t ever cry. I find kids that scream or cry need to be heard. I let them know I hear them and that I’m  here to help, just ask for help. This of course leads to calm.  I was trained to teach kids to float on their back. Now I teach from the first lesson how to backstroke start from the wall. I would like to spend 1/3 of  the class with backstroke drills and practice. There is crying at this stage with some kids , I push thru that stage with lots of practice and trying .  I tease my parents my parents that they got the top of the line alarm system with this kid.lol

Read about how I create a positive mindset for my swimming lessons.