My daughter was only one year old when I took her to the swimming pool at the Galleon in Didsbury.
She was wearing an assortment of rings & held tightly on to me. I felt nervous initially, but tried not to show it!
We ended up spending 45v minutes in the pool, just moving slowly around. A swimming instructor approached me & told me what a wonderful job I was doing.
I wasn’t so sure. After all I wasn’t teaching her to swim, we were just spending quality time together.
We did this several times for a year, until eventually we enrolled for swimming lessons at the Manchester Aquatic Centre.
By the age of 7 she was a brilliant swimmer! I didn’t actually teach her at all!
It was very similar with reading. Straight from birth this time! I would read fairy stories to her. I would also read THE CAT IN THE HAT.
For a long time she had no idea what I was reading or why we were reading.
She sat with me, we cuddled & I read. Every day.
I didn’t ever teach her to read.
Strangely, by the age of 3 she could read simple stories.
By the age of 11 she had passed every Entrance Exam that she had taken – LOTS OF THEM.
The secret of both these stories is that I spent the time with my daughter.
I made her the priority. I didn’t push or force her swim or read. It was fun & it was time spent together.
It paid dividends.
