It was the penultimate swimming lesson for Davies today. I’ve got really mixed feelings about them. On the one hand we don’t do teaching here, so I do appreciate it is not something that Davies is familiar with but he wants to learn to swim and has enjoyed the process and insists he wants to carry on. He has had a variety of instructors during the 12 weeks, some way better than others but actually I think consistency and continuity of teacher is a really important part of learning. The class has varied between 6 and 10 children with some of them way ahead in terms of ability. Davies has always been one of, if not the least able and to my mind has really suffered as a result with the teachers focusing on the more able swimmers. I’m fairly sure if roles were reversed and he was a better swimmer I’d be happy about this and not so keen on the slower ones ‘holding my child back’ so I’m not really complaining but he does tend to get rather ignored and left to his own devices which is a bit of a recipe for disaster really as he doesn’t then pay much attention to what’s being asked of the group, tends to just chatter to the child next to him or play with his float or noodle instead of doing much in the way of swimming. I’ve spoken to him about it several times, expressing that he is there to learn, not play or socialise, the onus is on him to do that and we’re not prepared to pay money for him to mess about, offering the chance to stop lessons if he doesn’t feel ready and just bring him to the pool to play instead until he does feel ready to focus on the learning, but he is adamant he wants to have the lessons. I think he has got plenty out of them, he is utterly confident of putting his face in the water, ducking under and laying right back into the water for back stroke, what it has given him is a great level of water confidence which I don’t have as an adult, but he does need to be pushed or at the very least coaxed along as without that he otherwise tends to mentally and physically wander off and do his own thing.
Last week they had a different teacher again and she was utterly fantastic, got loads out of every individual child, regardless of their ability level, learnt all their names within minutes and really pushed them all, Davies came out buzzing and I really felt we got money’s worth for the first time since he started. Today it was yet another teacher and she was rubbish, absolutely rubbish. Davies didn’t pick his feet up off the pool floor once I don’t think – he either walked along backwards or forwards depending on what stroke she’d asked for, he spent one entire width just lifting the float up and smacking it as hard as he could back into the water AND IT WENT TOTALLY UNNOTICED!!! I got so angry I clambered down to the pool side from the spectator area ready to drag him out of the water and shove him under her nose shouting ‘IS THIS CHILD INVISIBLE???!!!’ at her and quite probably had steam rising off me. There was a final insult of her getting them all to climb out and then jump back in. Davies struggles to climb out and this was also ignored with him trying, falling back in and trying again until he finally got out, by which point all the others had had their first go at jumping in and were having their second go, so he only got one try at that too.
I did some dreadful poolside public parenting and ranted at him in full view and hearing off all the children coming out and their parents and all the children about to get in for the next lesson, also being just loud enough in my ‘and worst of all it went unnoticed, the instructor was oblivious!’ ending to my rant to (hopefully) get overheard by her too. I would have spoken to her if she’d not been about to start the next lesson, so instead having got Davies changed I vented all my rage on the duty manager once we got upstairs. He was equally useless and advised me to email the instructor manager, who just so happens to be the excellent teacher from last week, so we swept out of there, no doubt fodder for the staff room for the rest of the day as ‘that lunatic woman from this morning’ 😳 I eventually calmed down and spoke to Davies about the whole thing, outlining again my expectations on him if he wants to carry on with lessons, but actually he *is* just a six year old child and we are paying money for him to be taught, which the right teacher managed effortlessly last week getting the best out of him. Anyway, a lesson in how not to parent, complain, behave in public for me probably – it’s not often these days I get red mist rage to that degree, although I can think of a couple of incidents just lately 😳 but when I do it I do it properly… About to compose a rather more reasoned and articulate email to them anyway.
Then we headed off to the car boot sale. I think I’d just about stopped shaking by the time we got there. We did well, a few more animals, a pony for Tarly (toy one, obviously 😉 ), a W&G jokebook for Davies and a coat to use for his Doctor outfit for his party for a quid. Oh and Gremlins on video which I’ve been keeping an eye out for. We left there and went to my parents for lunch / the afternoon, which was nice.
They have just bought a massive HD tv, dvd player/recorder and Ady had taken some dvds round to show them what it could do. He is very impressed and envious of it – personally I think they’d have done better spending the money on taking their grandchildren to EuroDisney but then I’ve always been more about the experiences than the ‘stuff’ – I was only saying this week that I could fit all the belongings I’d ever need in one small suitcase if I was ever going to leave home (laptop, phone, camera, make up 😉 – no not about the stuff at all :lol:), but then as I may have mentioned The Littlest Hobo had a big effect on me as a child 😆 So we watched a load of home video of the children from when we were in Manchester and the first few months back here – from the childen being 18 months and 3 years old up to about 2.5 years and 4.5 years, so ending with Davies being the age Scarlett is now. Very nice to watch and interesting to see in what ways they have and haven’t changed.
We left there at about 4pm and came home to find a Doctor Who back to back fest on one of the sky channels which the children dipped in and out of, interspersed with playing outside and hassling the chickens who I’d let out for a bit of free ranging. I was really curious to see the first interaction between cat and chicken and managed to be looking out the window when it happened. Candle was sitting in the bushes, more idly watching them peck about than anything and when they got a bit too close she lashed out without making contact. The chick squawked a bit and flapped away and that was the end of it. Very much a ‘sod off’ warning swipe than a ‘I’m going to have you with cranberry sauce little chickie’ type one which she didn’t bother to follow through with anything. I still wouldn’t totally trust her and will only let them out for a while yet when I / the children are around but it appears promising for future relations.
The children were packed off to bed fairly early, I put the chickens away for the night, we had a roast dinner and watched The Holiday. Well I watched it, Ady deemed it ‘not funny enough and way too girlie’, spent some time researching sonic rodent repellers online and then buggered off to bed! 😆
We’re planning a meet up with The Beans at a nearby Roman villa tomorrow, which should be lovely and a bit of an open house here with them on Tuesday – so if anyone local, or indeed anyone not local but willing to travel miles for our combined company would like to join us, please do so :).
looking forward to it. hopefully the roads will be kind! we will travel down, have a look around fishbourne, natter etc etc, and then find campsite – rofl!! better not pitch in a ditch.
SB v excited to be seeing you all again so soon.
I think SB’s swimming lessons are a bit crap actually, though the teacher at least does communicate with them all. she just doesn’t really explain what she is after enough for SB to listen!! rofl. i did try and do some swimming lessons with SB at kessie, so at leas t she does now understand what the teacher means by a mushroom float – Sb had got the idea you curl up in a ball and then explode outwards – hmm!! maybe we will look for a summer swimming club, but i think she would prefer a week of trampoline – and at 16, i think we can do that!!
Goodness, the swimming lessons do sound crap! I would also be extremely annoyed at having a different teacher every week and how come there are a different number of children each week, surely it can’t operate as a drop-in service? And as for him being left to his own devices, well, makes it a bit pointless paying all that money. I’d have probably reacted the same.
It does also go against most of your learning philosophies. Maybe he’s learnt enough that regular play time in the water with one of you would lead to some sort of swimming by itself and then if in the future he wanted to perfect the technique lessons would be the way to go, and if not he’d just be able to swim well enough to have fun jumping in and going down slides. If he’s gonna be an olympic swimmer he’ll do it with or without lessons. Or you could see if the other pool still has a place for him. Maybe after a few weeks break things’ll suddenly click into place, like they do.
Although I must say, interesting experiment. Now imagine he was one of, not ten but thirty children and he spent, not one but thirty hours a week in the company of one, two or even more teachers who were only really interested in the most advanced pupils. Scary thought.
Might pop over as I don’t have any children Tuesday and fancy some shopping in Brighton.
grrr to crappy swimming teachers. Hope you are having a good day with the Beans!
J is all for F having swimming lessons but I’m not so sure. It is so much down to the teacher, as you say, isn’t it? The right teacher would inspire and encourage all the children in the lesson – the wrong teacher for something like this could leave F with less confidence than when she started, or even a fear of water. Hmm.
Don’t blame you for going into rant mode at all, sounds very frustrating.
I’ve heard lots of tales of less than excellent swimming lessons. P had some when she was younger (she could swim but wanted to improve) and they were a bit rubbish. Now she is really enjoying a swimming club (gets to see her friends and swim – just about her top two activities!) and is having a stab at strokes like butterfly that we can’t model! But, she’s ten and the moment is right for her to take it in, I think.
Leo would hate swimming lessons, I suspect. He’s taught himself enough to paddle about and a snorkel set helped him swim a bit more smoothly. He really did pick that up just from playing and watching other people swim. Maybe you could suggest to Davies that he really will learn (and have more fun) if you just spend the cash on family trips to the pool?
Are you going to ask for a refund? Or maybe you could ask for some entry vouchers so you can teach your child to swim, seeing as their teachers couldn’t be bothered!
Perhaps you should have suggested to Davies he spent his money on an experience 😉
😆 not sure what level of memorable experience he’d have got for twenty quid, but it was one of the options I offered 🙂
He could have got his ears pierced? 😆 (Or even a cheap tattoo!)
HP5?
crazy hairdo?
Nic ‘autonomous’ Goddard offering options? Blimey.
If any of our kids found £20 I wouldn’t let them spend it on themselves. I think that kind of random good fortune should be shared.