Keep swimming, keep swimming, keep swimming

I’ll bet all you parents recognize that line from Finding Nemo, but even better, I’ll bet all your kids would recognize the line ‘keep swimming’ as well. Any time you can tie a character or a repetitive statement to a skill it becomes a game for your child instead of the white noise of instructions usually issuing from your mouth, like ‘wash your hands….cover your mouth….put the seat down….don’t tease’. My daughter came home from kindergarten today and instructed me the correct way to make the number 9 – a circle and a line, that makes a nine. If your child is struggling with learning to swim and they enjoyed Nemo, maybe they would relate to Nemo’s Dad and Dora and how they never gave up trying to find Nemo. Make it a game while you hold them in the pool and have them kick and paddle and keep swimming, keep swimming, keep swimming. Even better, they know you are there for them as long as it takes for them to learn because just like Nemo’s dad, you’d never give up on your child.