Having spent seven years reading about how the human brain works, I am very passionate about restricting our boys’ out of school formal activities. Our ten year-old is only in his second year of playing field hockey and his second year of learning to play the piano. He also chose to learn the Double Bass this year, although I suspect that won’t top his list of things-to-do next year. We haven’t rushed our boys into learning to read (although storytelling and listening to stories are fundamental parts of our day) and we love that they go to a school where homework is limited.
But there is one out of school activity I insist our children participate in for 10 years or more: swimming lessons.
New Zealand is made up of three main islands with complicated names: North Island, South Island, and The Little Island At The Bottom – just joking; it’s Stewart Island. The farthest you can get from the ocean at any one time is 119.44 km (74 miles). There are at least 775 lakes and hundreds of rivers, which I didn’t count after my head hurt from counting lakes. There is a lot of farmland, which means dams and water-troughs are prevalent. The countryside and bush are full of streams, and there are a fair few swimming pools around too.
As a rule, Kiwis live beside, in, and on the water. If you want to live here, fully participate in the life-style and can’t swim, there is a likelihood you will drown or at least make a fair impersonation of drowning. Neither of which are pleasant options.
So my boys will, and do, learn to swim from the age of three until they are more than competent. Over-learning such an essential skill means that their responses will be automatic if they do get into trouble while surfing or diving in the future. We also don’t tend to rescue them too quickly when they get into trouble while they’re swimming for fun. That way, they get to experience the sensations of being out of their depth, or in the current, and therefore learn to be cautious and, somewhat, curb their testosterone-filled enthusiasm. I figure this works more efficiently than us conscientiously ‘teaching’ them about safety. The first swimming teacher they had, also had a pool that is too deep for the small ones to touch the bottom. This has been the most effective way of getting kids to pay attention in swimming class that I have ever seen!
There are plenty of things children could be doing with their time, but, as far as I am concerned though, swimming is the essential out-of-school class.
Do you have a formal class which you insist your children attend for a set period of time?
This is an original post written for World Moms Blog. Karyn Van Der Zwet also writes for her own blog http://kloppenmum.wordpress.com and you can follow her on twitter @kloppenmum, and facebook – Karyn at Kloppenmum. Her first book, Why People Drive You Crazy – Part One, A Fresh Look at Temperament, will be available via amazon.com mid-June.
Photo credit to the author.
Swimming IS an amazing skill to have! I want both my boys to learn and be competent in it, and fortunately, my eldest is a water baby. Can’t wait til they’re both like fish in the water!
I love that our older boys are competent and confident in the water, Alison. Now to get the little fella going too and I’ll be able to relax a little more!
My parents taught me to swim when I was one and a half. I have no memory of not being able to swim. I wholeheartedly believe in teaching kids to swim as early as possible. For me, moving in water has always felt as natural as moving on land. I’m dedicated to teaching Owl to swim as well. I haven’t put him through formal classes but we have a pool and I take him swimming often!
I love that you can’t remember learning how to swim! Swimming is my zen and I hope it becomes the same for the boys too.
I strongly agree with you about the importance of teaching swimming skills to our kids. Swimming is one of the most enjoyable activities for me. I didn’t get swimming lessons but my father taught me, although I am not competent but I am so interested to let my sons be trained by professionals and I think that the eldest reached a competent level he even joined a water polo team for some time but lately decided to change to another sport. Concerning the younger he is still attending classes and I am doing my best to let him take his chance to reach a competent level. Important topic for every mom, thanks for sharing:)
It’s great how many other activities we can access once we can swim, isn’t it? We introduced our boys to the water, but they have all had formal lessons – I think I would become too frustrated with them if I tried to teach them myself!
We live not far from the Atlantic ocean, but regardless, I completely agree — learning to swim is a necessity! It is life-saving skill. We started lessons with my 5 year old at 3 years old, and we have taken both girls into the water as babies to get them used to it. Foreign language is something else that I like to have my kids take classes in. They are play based classes, but they get to hear the language at a higher level than I can speak! My oldest started at 18 mos. and my 17 mos. old will be starting this September. I read to them in French at night, and I try to use French a little during the day. I want to speak French only to them, but I am a complete slacker and need to renew my French. still. I’ll get there! It is interesting learning about water and New Zealand, too! Jen 😉
We are so monolingual, generally speaking. I remember when I was travelling being embarrassed that so many people, who often spoke multiple languages, could only communicate in English with me. We are lucky to be involved in a school that values second language learning, so I have been extremely lazy on that front!
Swimming is just a really important skill to have, even if you don’t live near the ocean. My kids actually started in a water babies class before they could even walk. The idea was that its important to get early exposure so that later they are comfortable in the water when they start swim lessons. But I was so impressed that the first thing they taught them was how to paddle to the edge of the pool and hold on. I never would have thought of that potentially life-saving skill! Thanks for the post, Karyn! ~Jennifer
Our first swimming lessons are very similar. The boys were taught to turn themselves over on to their backs at first, and then go for the side of the pool second. It was something I hadn’t thought about either.
I could or agree with you ore Karyn! I myself love the water and can’t remember it knowing how to swim (I was even a springboard diver in college). My son took lessons from an early age, and my daughter will begin soon. My son has even expressed interest in learning how to learn all of the different strokes and become competitive, for which I am looking for a local program for sept (I’m sure watching Michael Phelps win all those medals over theoast couple of weeks had something to do with that 🙂 ). My daughter loves the water, so we will start her in a baby swimming course soon as well. I have always been a strong believer that it is one of the most important things we can teach our children, since it can save their lives one day. As for what classes I add to the curriculum… I insist on Hebrew school, and a French class (both of the kids are completely bilingual French/English, but there is something that they get from being surrounded by other French speakers besides my mother and I). I also insist, for my son (my daughter is still to young) on a sport… It is his choice whichever sport he would like, but I think it is so important for him to get out and run around
I could or agree with you ore Karyn! I myself love the water and can’t remember it knowing how to swim (I was even a springboard diver in college). My son took lessons from an early age, and my daughter will begin soon. My son has even expressed interest in learning how to learn all of the different strokes and become competitive, for which I am looking for a local program for sept (I’m sure watching Michael Phelps win all those medals over theoast couple of weeks had something to do with that 🙂 ). My daughter loves the water, so we will start her in a baby swimming course soon as well. I have always been a strong believer that it is one of the most important things we can teach our children, since it can save their lives one day.As for what classes I add to the curriculum… I insist on Hebrew school, and a French class (both of the kids are completely bilingual French/English, but there is something that they get from being surrounded by other French speakers besides my mother and I). I also insist, for my son (my daughter is still to young) on a sport… It is his choice whichever sport he would like, but I think it is so important for him to get out and burn off his energy in a positive way (he chose martial arts come Sept, which I am really happy about).
I could or agree with you ore Karyn! I myself love the water and can’t remember it knowing how to swim (I was even a springboard diver in college). My son took lessons from an early age, and my daughter will begin soon. My son has even expressed interest in learning how to learn all of the different strokes and become competitive, for which I am looking for a local program for sept (I’m sure watching Michael Phelps win all those medals over theoast couple of weeks had something to do with that 🙂 ). My daughter loves the water, so we will start her in a baby swimming course soon as well. I have always been a strong believer that it is one of the most important things we can teach our children, since it can save their lives one day.As for what classes I add to the curriculum… I insist on Hebrew school, and a French class (both of the kids are completely bilingual French/English, but there is something that they get from being surrounded by other French speakers besides my mother and I). I also insist, for my son (my daughter is still to young) on a sport… It is his choice whichever sport he would like, but I think it is so important for him to get out and burn off his energy in a positive way (he chose martial arts come Sept, which I am really happy about). 🙂
For me, knowing which activities are really important for our family (like swimming, and your Hebrew school, French and sport) has really helped me focus my attention and efforts. So good to have the opportunity to access these classes.