W has been in swimming lessons since June 2012. We go once a week. Same pool, same lane, same teacher, same routine... Same level. We take him to a swim school. It isn't cheap, but my goal was for him was to be comfortable with water by the summer of 2013 and I was confident that would happen at this place. He didn't need to learn to swim in a year, just develop a comfort level in the water.
He doesn't love swimming lessons. He likes it, but it's
often a struggle to get him out the door and there is a lot of whiny
questioning of how long he has to take swimming lessons. My answer to him is always the same:
"Forever. You will be in swimming lessons until you are a good swimmer,
which will seem like forever."
There are six things he has to master before moving on to the next level and he's done four of those things. While there has been plenty of improvement, he still won't let go of the instructor to try to float on his back for five seconds. Until he does that he'll stay at the level he's at.
His instructor looks at me each week and assures me W is doing better. I
tell him that I know, but I can tell he expects me to be more frustrated. I'm a competitive person by nature. But this is one situation when I'm going to focus on the improvements that I see in him every week, rather than what the school uses to determine his progress. Is it wrong that I'm not?
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Nope, totally not wrong. Everyone progresses at a different rate. As long as he's doing what you need, it's all good. But... sometimes a different instructor is all it takes. There's something that just kick starts with a new instructor or a new pool. IF you ever get there. I was amazed after switching Mister Man when we joined a gym with an indoor pool when he learned more in a month than he had in the previous 6 months at the *expensive* place :)
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