Whether you’re teaching your kids to swim or teaching them long division, you’re going to spend a lot of time reviewing things you’ve already covered. It’s easy to feel like you’re spinning your wheels when you’re reviewing, but there’s something you should know that will change the way you think about teaching forever.

What You Don’t Know about Reviewing That Will Change the Way You Think about Teaching Forever

Reviewing is the heart of the lesson. This is so important that I’ll say it again: reviewing is the heart of the lesson. The first time your child is exposed to a new skill, he only scratches its surface. When you’re teaching your child to swim, he has to listen to you, watch you, and feel his own body, all while trying to interpret your feedback and the feedback he’s getting from his body and the water. It’s a big job, and it’s a lot to process. Not all of that processing is going to take place in the pool.

After you teach your kids a new swimming skill and get out of the pool, they’ll rest and play and do other things, but they’re still thinking about the skill you introduced. They’re still getting insights into how it worked. They’re still analyzing what was going on in the pool. A whole bunch of the learning of the new skill takes place after the lesson is over. They might even dream about it!

Don’t be disappointed if the bulk of your swimming lesson is dedicated to review. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s going to help your kids really get it.