IT occurred to me one hot spring day that the children—the four- to five-year-olds at the nursery school—
would enjoy cooling off in our family back-yard pool.
They certainly did, and because many of them were receptive to instruction, and there was no pool available to them (they were too young for Red Cross lessons at the high school), and because I had watched my own children in their swimming lessons, I was inspired to teach very small children swimming.
Many of the techniques used in the book to help children overcome their reluctance about, or fear of, the water are equally effective in teaching small children of a nursery school.
The songs and games are the same songs and games the children enjoyed at school; the experience with swings and balancing boards, tricycles and sand piles, develops knowledge and confidence—both physical and psychological —in some of the same ways that swimming does.
From the very first, I was encouraged by the advice and the very practical help I received from Frank Blair. Certain basic principles and the plan for putting these principles into prac-tice were developed by Frank after a wide and diversified.
