When we went to Omaha my daughter requested we give swim lessons to the four year old twins. My daughter told me if E doesn’t want to put her head under the water she doesn’t have to. I wrote them an email telling them that if kids aren’t comfortable with their head under the water before they’re five it becomes extremely difficult to teach them swimming. Their life is going to be very difficult. They took the girls out and prepped them. We gave them beanie babies for every lessons they did and Frozen stickers for A and Troll stickers for E every time they put their heads in the water. By the last lesson they were getting 10 stickers each. They learned how to jump in to us with their heads going under, reach for the edge and climb out, Move along the edge, use kickboards with help, backfloat with help, get passed from one grandma to granddad underwater, starting to swim. The last day they watched Grandad go from indoor pool to out door pool and they decided they wanted to try it. They got passed several feet under water and they were so proud! They aren’t swimming yet but they are close, They are ready for Y level 2 lessons in the fall. IF we had let E get her way she wouldn’t have been able to do most of those things.
One benefit these kids have in being twins is my daughter has to maintain nap schedules etc. If they fight the toy goes up. We are fortunate they like each other and play well together. If she had had a singleton I think we would see similar behaviors to your grandchild.
When I teach swimming lessons I need a nap in the afternoon!