I signed the girls up for the summer session of swimming at the swim school we've been attending for the past year. In the past, only Jenna has been going (because Abby could only go in the parent/child class and I was waiting until she could go independently). She's been going once a week, but this time, both Jenna and Abby are attending five days a week for two weeks. The girls are in separate classes, but at the same time. Swimming bootcamp is how I like to think of it.
Given that swimming is a struggle for Jenna (afraid of the deep water, reluctant to try new things, and sat on the steps for 16 weeks of the Y lessons) I made two rules for the girls. #1 Do everything your teacher asks you to do, even if you don't want to. #2 Try something new every day.
The first day was awesome! Both girls loved their teachers and did everything they asked. I was sure that this awesomeness would continue. It did for Abby. Yesterday, she had another great day. But Jenna struggled. She was doing fine and then all of the sudden I saw her crying. She didn't want to flip from her back to her tummy and was putting up a fight. From that moment on, she was scared to do anything else. This isn't like her. She hasn't been uncooroperative since our Y days.
In the car on the way home, I found out why. She told me that her teacher called her "hard." She has two teachers--the main one and a helper. There are two other little girls in Jenna's class, and the helper went to grab Jenna from the wall to practice, leaving two others there. Jenna says that the lead teacher told the helper teacher to leave Jenna for last because she was "hard."
Well . . . Jenna heard this, and all the confidence she had in the first day vanished. I suspect that she gave up and felt awful for the rest of the swimming class--which would explain her downturn towards the end of the lesson.
In the car, she just cried. Her head in her lap, she asked me why she can't swim as well as the other kids and why she is "hard." All I could do was give her praise encourage her.
I hope things are better today and that her teacher knows that when he thinks those little ears aren't listening, that they really are. I'm hoping for a better day today!
1 comment:
I think you should go kick that teacher and let her know how hard you are. Not really, I know that isn't the loving way to handle it, but it makes me really angry. I don't think people get how those little comments can wound a child. It takes hundreds of praise comments to counter act one negative comment. I'm sorry that happened to you and to Jenna. I was hoping this summer would be the one for her and her swimming. If it makes you feel any better, Seth is afraid of swimming too.
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