Summer Swimming For Dollars

I may not know the first thing about teaching a kid to swim... but I know what I want my son to achieve this summer. (Rubric) It's as simple as not being afraid to go in the shallow end, no more terror when a drop of water gets on his face, and at least the very basic lifesaving skill of treading water. We don't have a pool, so it is more difficult to get through some of these challenges. I'd also like him to be able to do swimming and watercraft activities at Camp Whitsett this year, and these require passing a basic swim test.

If he won't even go into the water, swimming lessons are probably not the way to go. I mean, maybe private lessons would work, but around here these private lessons are so cost inhibitive I'd rather just deal with it myself. There are plenty of group classes, but some require an evaluation before being placed in a class, and at LAVC, for example, they said if he won't even go into the water, I should start with private lessons first. I had hoped seeing other kids go would encourage him, but alas.

So public pools (yuck) and neighbors will have to do. Instead of money I'll be spending patience... which I admit I don't have a lot of, especially when an 8-year-old resists. Vehemently.

Anyway, given how much time we spend around water in the summer, the last thing I need is to worry about him more than necessary. So I'm going to try a little goal-oriented approach to help him along. First, we're going to watch "swim lesson" videos so that he can see what he's expected to do and learn from modeling. He does well with learning by watching video, whereas being dragged out to the

Next, we're going to earn dollars. Yes, I am going to bribe him. This will work better than stickers or points or artificial currency because he wants to spend his money on Pokemon cards. I am not a fan of extrinsic rewards but in this case, given how many years we have failed at learning to swim, it might be worth it, especially since I am forcing this on him instead of it being something he chooses for himself.

The basic skills I want him to master are based on the American Red Cross swim skills chart. I'm going to develop a kind of rubric that lets him fish money out of the bottom of the pool and hopefully makes it fun. As he progresses from going under to floating to treading water to dog paddling to swimming to triathlons to ... kidding! ... he'll earn dollars and get to spend them on water toys, Pokemon cards, or whatever else he wants.

Wish me luck.