teaching a child to swing

My DS is 5 and cannot pump on a swing. He tries to do the motion, but he
does not have the feel for it. When it comes right down to it, you really
cannot explain it. At least I can't. How *do* you teach someone to swing?

Irene...

I've tried with ds (almost 5) by chanting "Legs out" and "Down" at the
appropriate times, but he still hasn't quite got the whole thing. I
might try adding the idea of Push with your butt, since I hadn't
mentioned that before, tho I'm not sure if he'll quite understand.

I was reading Unconditional Parenting a few months ago, and he was
talking about how parents overpraise their kids. One of his examples
was "Good swinging!" and he was rather condescending about it -
something along the lines of, "How hard is it to swing, anyhow? You
just go back and forth!" At which point he lost a bit of credibility
with me - while he's a parent (Alfie Kohn, the author), he has
obviously never taught a kid to swing, and doesn't realize that it's a
major accomplishment!

Stephanie Stowe...

nexteracz...

My daughter at jsut about 5 has just gotten the hang of pumping. Try
all the other suggestions, and add "Push with your bottom!" at the
right moment, which seems to help them get the idea of where the
momentum is supposed to come from, because just swinging your legs back
and forth doesn't do the trick (but is still an important part of the
process of course!).

Don't worry - he'll get it - my daughter came excitedly running out of
her classroom when I came to pick her up from preschool, "Mama! Mama! I
knwo how to swing now!" :)

Jen in Prague
DS, 9 next week and DD, 5 next week

I thought he was bummed out that his cohorts ould do it and he couldn't.
Turns out he could not care less. So there it is.