launching Your Preschooler - Ways to help your child in his first experiences

When I was a small child, my grandfather grew impatient with my efforts at learning to swim. “You ought to take him out to deep water and throw him in,” the old gentleman advocated. “Then he'll learn how to swim. That's what they did to me when I was a boy!”
Fortunately for me, no one took his advice seriously. How successful this method was for him might be judged (though he never mentioned it) by the fact that no man living had ever seen Grandpa venture into deep water. His first experience had been too much for him.
The first time is the important time. Put a child on roller skates against his will, or in a situation where he feels disgraced if he cannot skate off like an expert at once—and he may never learn to roller skate in his life. Watch a child whose “first time” on skates has been handled more happily, learning to roller skate, ignoring bruised elbows and skinned knees, wobbling, falling, get­ting up and wobbling some more. He'll learn! The old proverb, “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again,” suits this situation to a tee—but it would not have applied had the child been unwill­ing or too young—or in the swimming situation my grandfather starred in.
In many, many situations it is the first experience which counts. If a child's first visit to a dentist consists of a jolly con­versation, an examination that is neither painful nor frightening, and a brand new toothbrush to top it off, his ensuing visits will be easy for him. If his first independent shopping trip—to the familiar corner store for a loaf of bread—comes off without mishap, he will be eager to go shopping another time.