Ask any child what their favorite summer activity is and more often than not they will answer exuberantly, \u201cswimming!\u201d\u00a0 I loved the pool so much that I was on the swim team, became a lifeguard, taught swim lessons and was a swim coach.\u00a0 The neighborhood pool is an incredible place for family bonding, learning and development if we\u2019ll let it be.\u00a0 For a few weeks I want to talk about lessons that can be learned at the swimming pool to make sure we\u2019re getting the most out of our summer fun!<\/p>\n
\u00a0One of my earliest memories with my father was learning to dive.\u00a0 He also claims to have taught me to swim, but I don\u2019t remember that, I\u2019m even told that I gave credit to someone else.\u00a0 I do, though, remember my pink bathing suit, orange floaties on my arms and my dad in the water in front of me encouraging me to jump.\u00a0 That initial leap was terrifying!\u00a0 Could I be certain he was going to catch me if I couldn\u2019t get back up?\u00a0 Was I skilled enough to jump to the correct place?\u00a0 What if by some fluke I fall backward and bust my head?\u00a0 I was aware, though, that my father knew more than I did about swimming, about the pool, and about what I could do and so if he thought I could dive I knew that I could.\u00a0 Even after my first successful dive I had fear and anxiety taking the second and the third leaps, but eventually I began to have confidence no longer in my father\u2019s ability to save me, but in my ability to come back to the top.<\/p>\n
The pool is a great place to learn as a child that there are people in your life who know more than you do and who are there to help you up when you fall.\u00a0 The pool can teach you that there\u2019s always fear and anxiety associated with taking a leap, whether it\u2019s off the diving board, into a new job or into a new relationship.\u00a0 This anxiety, though, cannot hold you back from the leap, but should be an indication that you are about to do something exciting.\u00a0 The pool also taught me that it is wise to seek counsel before taking the leap.\u00a0 There have been people placed in our lives who love us, like our family, and people who are trained to see the bigger picture, like lifeguards, counselors and mentors, who we should consult with to see if we are taking the right leap and at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n
It is crucial to our children\u2019s development to encourage them to take those leaps despite the fear, while seeking instruction from wise counsel.\u00a0 So this summer at the pool look for those opportunities for your children to take some leaps while learning to respect and take into consideration other\u2019s wise counsel.<\/p>\n
Have fun at the pool and keep your eyes open for more life lessons from the pool coming soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ask any child what their favorite summer activity is and more often than not they will answer exuberantly, \u201cswimming!\u201d\u00a0 I loved the pool so much that I was on the swim team, became a lifeguard, taught swim lessons and was a swim coach.\u00a0 The neighborhood pool is an incredible place for family bonding, learning and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[107,77,75,76,16],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-for-fun","tag-just-for-fun","tag-life-lessons-learned-at-the-pool","tag-parenting","tag-summer","tag-weekend-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}