Re: Kids and water
Lol...no, I totally agree that ASAP is best to get them IN the water. I'm just saying that formal swimming lessons (assuming you've regularly put your kids in the water to play and had the sense to teach them to blow bubbles and paddle and kick without making them scared to death of the water) seem to work best around 5-6 if you are actually hoping your child will learn to swim technically correct(ish) swimming strokes in a reasonable amount of time. Before that, most children just don't have the kinesthetic awareness necessary to learn to swim properly. Sure, I can teach them how to paddle around and float and blow bubbles (in our once a week, hour long lessons--assuming they enjoy the water), but if you are expecting them to be swim team ready by 5, you (hypothetical parent) need to invest a heck of a lot more time and money into their swimming lessons.
Its sort of like my experience in potty training with two kids. Sure, I could have started potty training them (and I did with Phee) before 2...but she still wasn't potty trained until she decided she wanted to be potty trained. Which happened on her 3rd birthday (after touring the program we were looking at) when I told her she couldn't go to school until she didn't have any more accidents and only used the big girl potty. After that, she never needed diapers and never had a night time accident either. With Sharkbait, I didn't bother with all that early crud, and he figured it out on his own by 3 (though we still had some night time accidents and we had a whole poop control thing to work through, which was a totally separate issue).
Originally posted by Heka
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Its sort of like my experience in potty training with two kids. Sure, I could have started potty training them (and I did with Phee) before 2...but she still wasn't potty trained until she decided she wanted to be potty trained. Which happened on her 3rd birthday (after touring the program we were looking at) when I told her she couldn't go to school until she didn't have any more accidents and only used the big girl potty. After that, she never needed diapers and never had a night time accident either. With Sharkbait, I didn't bother with all that early crud, and he figured it out on his own by 3 (though we still had some night time accidents and we had a whole poop control thing to work through, which was a totally separate issue).
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