Kids were not bored. Being in the water is such a novelty. They were always exploring how their bodies moved, splashing, making bubbles, playing with the lane separators, admiring the underwater light, etc. I would make up little activities, like trying to spin around in the water, blowing bubbles, try to get your feet out of the water in front of you then behind you then in front of you then behind you … I dunno, lots of stuff, and it wound up looking wildly different for my older kid versus my younger kid. My older (highly verbal) kid wanted gamification: a series of challenges to beat. My younger (semi-nonverbal) kid would basically just make up his own mind about what he wanted to do each minute and I would try to work around that. He actually got really into having a floaty noodle, and got very upset without it, so I just did the best I could to make sure that he was holding it in his left hand half the time and his right hand half the time so he could practice swimming with the other hand, and did what I could to reduce his reliance on it, and eventually I kinda forced him to play “chase the noodle” where I would push the noodle away from him and he would swim to it.
See, I think the description of the challenges you set for them is the most helpful part of this whole post! If you have any more you can think of, please do share them.
Kids were not bored. Being in the water is such a novelty. They were always exploring how their bodies moved, splashing, making bubbles, playing with the lane separators, admiring the underwater light, etc. I would make up little activities, like trying to spin around in the water, blowing bubbles, try to get your feet out of the water in front of you then behind you then in front of you then behind you … I dunno, lots of stuff, and it wound up looking wildly different for my older kid versus my younger kid. My older (highly verbal) kid wanted gamification: a series of challenges to beat. My younger (semi-nonverbal) kid would basically just make up his own mind about what he wanted to do each minute and I would try to work around that. He actually got really into having a floaty noodle, and got very upset without it, so I just did the best I could to make sure that he was holding it in his left hand half the time and his right hand half the time so he could practice swimming with the other hand, and did what I could to reduce his reliance on it, and eventually I kinda forced him to play “chase the noodle” where I would push the noodle away from him and he would swim to it.
See, I think the description of the challenges you set for them is the most helpful part of this whole post! If you have any more you can think of, please do share them.