What happens on Wednesday??
Last March, I became a certified Water Safety Instructor. In other words, I teach swim lessons ;). Ever since March, I've been teaching swim lessons full swing. One or two classes at first, but now I'm up to four or five classes each week - how crazy is that!!! But I have to say, I love all my kiddos. I love to teach the little ones how blow bubbles, kick their feet, and jump into the pool while singing the Speckled Frog song. Not all of my classes are easy, I'll be the first to say.
Some of my kiddos are a breeze, you tell them what to do and they do it! Some of my kiddos are very timid and shy, needing lots of TLC, patience, and positive reinforcement. Some are fearless of the water, but have no idea how to swim - which is wonderful yet terrifying simultaneously. And some, are just screamers. No matter what you do, say, or try, they'll just scream and cling to you for dear life.
I've found that I can handle screamers a lot better than I can handle 6 pre-school age boys - alll to myself. Which include all of the above type swimmers!! That's one of the things that happens on Wednesday, managing a class of 6 very different type kiddos, swim levels, and voice decibels all at once. A lot of prayer, patience, and help from an experienced swim instructor plus sideline mommies has definitely been a blessing, even when I couldn't see it.
Ya see, I'm very territorial - especially of my swim classes. I love to teach, and when someone comes along who's better, who connects better with "my children", and parents love them completely steals my thunder. And last week I had to fight to stay above the depression and jealously. This swim instructor, Ms. P, decided to give me a helping hand. At first I was glad for the help...but as the lesson went on, I was more on the sidelines watching the class while she instructed my batch of boys with ease. I'd struggled every Tuesday and Thursday for all of this month with these kids, and in one night she's accomplished more than I could've dreamed of. You can only imagine how crushed my pride was. In the end, Ms. P did talk to me and explain it wasn't her intention to take over like that, and teaching 5 boys is hard (B didn't make it to class that night).
Even though I learned several wonderful techniques for working and managing a big class of all boys, 3-5 years of age, it took some beating down of my pride and acceptance to find them. She's a mom of 3, been teaching for years, and so much more - of course she's better than I am! But being human and the person that I am, it was a big deal to accept that I'm not perfect, that there are other things I could try to make my classes more enjoyable for those boys, and that I need to stop worrying so much and accept that life happens - and six little boys happens.
Well, off to class I go here in a little bit! We'll see what all else will happen on Wednesday.
Love,
Simply Jenn
