Swimming Update

While at Liam's swim lesson yesterday I realized I hadn't updated how he was doing since the first day, where I handed him screaming to the teacher.

In short, HE LOVES IT!

We have had a few changes in teachers, the first time because we switched days when Liam started preschool, the second time was a change at the swim school.  The first teacher Liam had was very nice and sweet and let him play and didn't really push him to do the lesson.  It was great for him a first; allowed him to get comfortable with the water, but I was happy when we switched days and got a new teacher.  Liam is a child who needs structure or he will take advantage.

When we switched his new teacher, Mr. Jordan (or My Gordon as Liam called him) was firm, but still nice.  Liam was expected to participate in class and this is when we really saw his "skills" grow.  Of course they are 3 year olds so there is plenty of fun too.

 

 

At the end of each lesson the deck manager rings the bell and all the children go line up at the slide and get to slide down into the water.  A teacher is at the bottom to catch them and help them out of the pool.  Liam refused to go down the slide until recently, he even hated the slide at the park, but now he is the first one in line.

 

So proud of my little fish.  Now we just need to think about what age to start Aubrey in lessons, we will not be waiting until 3 years old again.

Swim Lesson Fail

Liam's first swim lesson was a complete disaster!

Brian and I have been wanting to get Liam into swim lessons for quite a while now, we just could never get it to work with our work schedules. But now that school is out and I'll be home for an extended period of time we jumped at the chance to sign him up.

Swim lessons are important to us because we do not have a pool or has access to one so Liam's water experience is limited. When our new house is finished we will have a pool so we want Liam to understand pool safety and be able to enjoy the pool.

I talked to Liam about going to swim lessons all week. He was excited, turns out he thought we were going to a friends house who has a pool and he was going to get to play with some toys he enjoys there.

We walked into Little Otter's Swim School, he was still excited. "Look! There's a big blue pool". And then we checked in at the front desk. When asked if we were there for his first swim lesson he told the lady "no, I don't need to go in the water".
This continued while I was trying to help ( read: force) him to change. 20 minutes if arguing and tears in the changing room later I convinced him to just come sit and watch the other lessons with me. Good thing we came early.

Somehow when it was his turn I got him out on the pool deck without an opposition... Until he was asked to sit on the edge. I ended up having to hand him to the instructor, who walked around in the water with him, as he clung to her to dear life, before she was able to sit him on the edge of the pool, feet in the water, for the rest of the class.






I know his water experience is very limited, so yes it will take him a while to warm up to the idea. This was just so stressful for me, I don't want to force him into an activity he doesn't want to do, but we do see this as more of a necessity than a choice activity.

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