Spring Swing Training

Since the boys love to swing so much, I thought I would try to teach them to push each other, and it was much more difficult than I expected. The pendulum concept was beyond them. They wanted to push and follow the seat like a shopping cart. Once I convinced then to stand still and let the swing return to them, they would punch the seat back like you were pushing a heavy box deeper onto a shelf. The impact would stop the swinging motion altogether. I never realized that the job was all about precisely engaging a slow moving object and boosting its forward speed with a well timed push. Suddenly, I felt like a middle school science teacher with a class full of preschoolers. Six year old AnnaKaye Roberts came over from next door and actually taught them how to do it properly.