Now, let me back up a bit. I'm sure most of you are thinking....um, hello, he's 4.5 yrs old....it's about time he learned to swim!! Well, I wanted to do it at 2, but he was deathly afraid of the water. Hated the beach/ocean and not the biggest fan of the pool either. Same thing at 3 - not a big "water" fan. And I didn't want to scar him.
So then we were looking at last summer when he was almost 4 to do lessons, while we were still in TN. With all the moving and traveling, there was never an 4-5 wk stretch where we could do it.
Skip forward to now. He's 4.5 yrs old and raring to go! He was super excited about his lessons and can't wait to try out the massive waterslide at the UA pool this summer. (As an incentive to do well as his lessons, I told him he cannot go down the slide until he can learn to swim, go under the water, etc. He is pumped!)
We are doing Bama Swim School at the University Rec Center. It was recommended by a classmate's mom. There were initially 9 kids in the lesson today, and then it broke up into groups of 3 with 3 instructors. Of course Nate was in the "level 1/beginner" group since he was a newbie. He had two younger girls with him, but thankfully, didn't notice that he was the only "big" kid.
Parents were allowed to watch but had to sit way far down on the opposite end of the pool. This was hard for me! But I had to keep Abby entertained so that took my mind off Nate.
He did great though...he practiced putting his head under/blowing bubbles, "swimming" with help, floating, using a kickboard, jumping in the water, etc.
Abby did a good job too. I was worried she would try to jump in the pool (to save Nate perhaps), but she was pretty content to sit on the bench with me and wave constantly/cheer on BRUBA! :) I pulled out the dvd player towards the end and that was the ticket; she was mesmorized. God bless technology.
We'll go back on Thursday, and then go every T/TH for the next 4 wks. I can't wait to see the progress he makes and am so proud of our little fish!
Litchfield Beach 2012, here we come!!
Woohooo! Proud of you Nate! I hope we can swim like fishes at the beach together this summer :) When does Abby get to take lessons too??
ReplyDeleteI don't think we are going to try swim lessons again until next summer, and C will be almost 4. Every kid is different. C hates water in his face, so I am going to work with him this summer b/f paying for lessons again. I like how they break up into small groups! He looks like he is doing grat inthose pictures!!
ReplyDeletehe did great! we just signed tucker up too, anything up until would have been useless!!
ReplyDeleteYAY NATE!!!!!!!! So glad he loved it!!!!
ReplyDeleteGo Nate!
ReplyDelete