Sports-- Swimming

Objective:

Have TsukiMoon enjoy exercise and to make movement a habit.

Theory:

Do fun, active things as a family so exercise is enjoyable.  Role-model a healthy lifestyle.  We are more then growing a child, we are creating an adult, if exercise is fun now, it will be when he is older too.

On The Ground:

A friend with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) child who is older then our son, TsukiMoon, encouraged us to find a sport our kid.  Continually picked last for any team I have been hesitant to follow up on this.  I do think some kind of movement a should be a life-time habit.  Plus, I think she has a good point.  Sports has done a lot to help her son be more social and enjoy the comradery of a team.

We don't have the most coordinated kid. He has an in-toeing issue caused by naturally twisted femurs.  An orthopedic surgeon said they can be fixed with surgery but the operation requires the femur to be cut, rotated and reattached. I don't have an issue with it, TsukiMoon is understandably reluctant.  I defer to his wishes and he doesn't want the surgery. He may in the future, in the meantime running and kicking are an extra challenge on top of a general gross motor complication. 

Like so much with TsukiMoon, time does the trick.  I have taken him to the YMCA pool years now.  It started when he was two years old.  We spent hours each week in the pool.  There would be 3 and 4 year-old fishes happily swimming.  "If we just spend more time in the pool he will get there too," I thought.  It never happened.  I gave up the hope that he would swim at an early age and figured the best I could do is keep up the exposure to water so he was comfortable in it.  He does and now he he can swim.

For the first time this weekend, after many Y swim classes, he has been invited to go into the next level of class, up from beginner.  It took a long time but swimming is one of his joys. 

He even likes the aqua Zumba class that we take as a family. I get a case of the grins watching my husband doing his best to keep up with the choreography.  TsukiMoon likes having fun with his parents.  That is the best, happy exercise.

Last year when he took a soccer-skills class.  The children got very frustrated with TsukiMoon.  Early in the sessions they would yell at him when he had the ball.  Later in the sessions they would just ignore him or worst; talk about how bad he was with their friends, in front of him.  (This might have been harder on me then him.)  Nobody yells at the Y, everything is a good time.

"Family Swim" which is what the Y calls the time when children and their parents have "free time" in the pool, is that last thing of the day.  It takes the pool time right up until closing time.  It starts most week days at 7:30.  Which means that it is the last thing that we are usually super tired and don't want to go.  We go once or twice a week, to TsukiMoon delight.

Bedtime can be a rough time for the family as we work Boo through his night time routine.  Transitions are never fun for TsukiMoon.  The night time transitions might be the most difficult.  Why?  I don't know but sleep is hard for TsukiMoon to relax into sleep.  Luckily he has some habits that help him, like reading books.  Swimming is one more thing to help the transition.  Basically get some ya-ya's out and too have a strong evening routine.  Result? We don't have to push on him to have him get into bed.  He is much more relaxed and ready for slumber.

Maybe someday he will be on the school or town teams, but like everything with TsukiMoon that isn't a goal but a possible cherry on top of a big bowl of ice cream (non-dairy of course).