I'm about to throw down some learnin on you guys with this fancy title I tossed your way! This is the foundation of all the lessons I teach because it allows kids to put their own spin on the lessons.
Alot of times you can teach important skills by giving kids a certain task with parameters or rules that force them to solve the problem by themselves. It doesn't mean you shouldn't tell them what to do but you've gotta time it properly. They can give it a shot then you can nudge them in the right direction when they try again.
A couple examples of this comes with breathing exercises. Sometimes I'll get a child to figure out how to spot the color of a toy I hold in the air while they swim to work on taking breaths during a swim. It's a tough exercise cause they will suck in water. You can tweak the exercise by using a kickboard and telling them to try and hit the kickboard with their head while they swim. It's pretty effective if you need them to come up a little higher.
Giving open-ended tasks makes the lesson something that can be transferred anywhere. You can give certain tips that act as open-ended prompts while you teach them. You can say things like "swim loudly" or "fly across the water" to have them choose the strategy they want to use. Swimming loudly means splashing and flying could mean looking down at the floor to put more focus on floating.
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