Little Fish

I finally broke down, or perhaps the term should be grew a spine, and got my kids enrolled in swim lessons. Last year I took them to the local pool and we basically ended up sitting in the wade pool the entire time. It was fun for the kids, but I was a nervous mama watching two kids in the water. I am not exactly the best swimmer. I can stay afloat so therefore am capable of not dying if dropped in the ocean. But I'm no Olympian, that's for sure. Josh, on the other hand, is a fish in water. Apparently he and his brother were very much water kids growing up so Josh is always telling me that our kids will be good swimmers. So after much deliberation on where and when to sign up for swim lessons, I ended up deciding that the swim lesson program at the YMCA was our best option. And boy howdy! Am I ever glad I did this!

Alex and Abby ended up in the same class. It was a two week course where they go four days a week for 45 minutes. Each instructor got 4 or 5 kids and it was off to the deep end they went. The first day I was fairly nervous. I walked them over to the teacher at the deeper end of the pool (four feet or so...no feet touching the bottom) and she told them both to hop on in. They spent the first couple of days clinging on to the side of the pool for dear life but slowly they began to trust their water instincts more and more. By the end of week one, they were both putting their heads under water (Alex more so than Abby). Abby may have been a little leery of the full under water dunk but she took to the doggy-paddle like a little pro! The teacher was super nice and really awesome with the kids and she was even surprised at how fast miss Abby could go in the water. She sped right past her brother.

By the end of the second week it was all the instructor could do to keep the their heads above water...in a good way. Not the drowning type of way. Two weeks of swim lessons and lo and behold! I have two little fish. They are by no means drown-proof as they still need more instruction. But they can float on  their backs, go under water for good chunks of time, doggie paddle fairly well without flotation and really well with flotation, and have a great deal more respect for water (and also are somewhat scarily fearless of it now). The teacher talked to me at the end and said that Abby and Alex were easily the most improved in the class so I'm a proud mama. We then joked about how her class was the craziest and how out of four kids, there was usually only one head above water at a time. So I'm not going to be dunking them in the deep end without an adult and they still need floatation stuff for safety, but I couldn't be more proud of the little ones. Turns out Josh was right. They're gonna be fish in the water.

Here is a video of what the kids are like post-swimming lessons. They are begging me for a bigger pool. The water was too cold so Abby didn't want to go under. 

 

 

Getting ready to jump in at swim lessons.

Alex lovin' the deep end.

Abby also lovin' the deep end.

Alex's normal position in the small pool.

By the end of the second week it was all the instructor could do to keep the their heads above water...in a good way. Not the drowning type of way. Two weeks of swim lessons and lo and behold! I have two little fish. They are by no means drown-proof as they still need more instruction. But they can float on  their backs, go under water for good chunks of time, doggie paddle fairly well without flotation and really well with flotation, and have a great deal more respect for water (and also are somewhat scarily fearless of it now). The teacher talked to me at the end and said that Abby and Alex were easily the most improved in the class so I'm a proud mama. We then joked about how her class was the craziest and how out of four kids, there was usually only one head above water at a time. So I'm not going to be dunking them in the deep end without an adult and they still need floatation stuff for safety, but I couldn't be more proud of the little ones. Turns out Josh was right. They're gonna be fish in the water.