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Headstrong 4 yr old - pls advise

2 replies

siobhs · 04/10/2010 10:49

My little fella is 4 and we started swimming classes about a month ago. All went fine up to last week. There are about 10 kids in the pool - a teacher on the side and a teacher in the pool. The teacher in the pool is different every week which I know bothers him but thats out of my control.

He is not afraid of the water. Gets in the pool fine and lines up with everyone else. When the teacher tries to give him instructions he refuses to make eye contact, lookd in the opposite direction and won't reply to their questions. Both instructors spent alot of time trying to persuade him to cross the pool, kick his legs etc. He was having none of it. 10 minutes b4 the end of class he starts to cry and I took him out as he was really disrupting the whole class.

Like alot of 4 year olds, he takes a few minutes to get used to people and then he will chat away. He is a bright kid but is really stubborn. The more you try to coerce him the more he digs his heels in. We have class today and I just dont know what to do. His twin brother is in the same class and is doing fine.

Do I let him start and tell teachers if he doesn't cooperate, take him out? Do I get him to just sit and watch with me - the point being, the more he knows I want him to cooperate, the less likely he will.Help!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Tgger · 04/10/2010 20:09

Hmmmmmmmm, have you had a chat with him generally about the swimming class without pressure.. eg how it works, what a teacher is, how they can help you? Any chance you and he can chat to both teachers after class, get to know them a bit? Is it always the same 2, or completely different ones each time? That would freak my boy out too, in fact I'd change class as he always takes a while to get used to people.

Hmmmm, clearly you don't want him upset and crying, maybe he's just not ready for the class?

bumbums · 04/10/2010 20:12

Does he want to learn to swim? Does he know the benifits to being able to swim (when you're on hols etc).

If he wants to learn then he'll just have to get in water and get on with it. Give it another 4 weeks or so and see how he gets on. And only get him out as you did when he's really disruptive. And would you get cross with him? Or not appropriate?

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