Encouragement - sometimes it takes more then words to deliver it

Since DinoBoy's journey into the primary school world started this year, it has opened up many learning opportunities, experiences and stuffs that he has not been exposed to before.  He was eager to learn and like a dry sponge taking in water, he soak up every thing that the teachers taught him, he is able to grasped the concept fast and breeze through the schoolwork easily (except for Chinese but he is faring well in this subject).

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Of course there are stuffs that he has to put in more efforts to get it right.  Every time he exclaimed loudly that he couldn't do it, we encouraged him to try again, sometimes showing him how to do it and watched him do it, correcting him when necessary.  We are always there to boost his confidence, help him and encourage him all the way.  And when he did managed to accomplished the task we were I was dramatic about it (I'm a drama-mama so that is excusable haha!) with loud "Way to go son!" "See! You got it right~" "You did it!" "Yay!!" "Good job son!" high fives, hugs, kisses and tickles too.

Photo credits

The current "hurdle" he has is swimming, which sadly is one that I can't be at his side to encourage or do with him because I do not know how to swim.  Unless swimming means moving my arms any-o-how underwater and kick my legs hard and fast like mad which resulted in me moving forward.  Plus I have never received proper coaching or know exactly how a stroke should be like thus its not right for me to just jump in and tell him to it this way that way.  Anyway he has been unable to do the "pull-blow bubbles-pull-lift head up-turn head to side-take deep breaths" steps in the freestyle stroke.  He is either holding his breathe or not turning his head to the side and taking deep breath when head is lifted. Its been almost 2 months and his performance is unstable, sometimes he get it sometimes he totally couldn't do it.  So I have to think of alternative ways to help him, without me getting into the water of course, then an idea came to me!  I can make use of my mobile phone to take videos!

For just 2 lessons I have already taken at least 15 short video clips of him swimming the freestyle stroke.  I showed him the videos after I took it, he watched it and realized where he has gone wrong then jumped back into the pool to do it again with his coach.  There were no whining "I can't do it!" or refusing to try again or throwing his temper, he just did it spontaneously.  At the end of the day we watched the videos again and discussed where he had gone wrong or how he should have done it, where he had successfully lifted his head out of the water or he had finally taken a deep breath after that.  It has definitely helped him as now he remembers to lift his head out of the water and takes a deep breath.  There are still rooms for improvement but as of now I am glad with his progress and hope that he will continue till eventually mastering it. 

Ok, additional item to pack for swimming class - 1 Canon camera, CHECKED!