Swim Lessons

Shasta started swim lessons at Sky View last week. The classes are 40 minutes long, 5 days a week, for two weeks for $35. Not too shabby! As of right now we have 3 lessons to go and I'm not sure if I'm excited or sad that it's coming to an end. It's been pretty exhausting, but a lot of fun too. Plus I love to swim so it gives us something to look forward to. And we have a friend in the class that we carpool with everyday so it's been nice to have someone to chat with everyday.

The first day Shasta LOVED it! She had a perma-grin plastered on her face the entire time! Then day two she just clung to me for the whole lesson and wouldn't do anything. It was mostly my fault because I dunked her right at the beginning (as per instructed) and she was afraid I would do it again so she didn't want to participate anymore. And there have been a few times that she's choked on the water and she's wrapped her arms around me, rested her head on my shoulder and said, "I want lead me, guide me, walk beside me" so while the rest of the class is working on techniques, we're singing I Am A Child of God!

Floating on her tummy.

Kicking her feet... although it looks more like synchronized swimming!

 Since then we've kind of bounced back and forth with good days and bad days. I've learned not to dunk her all the way under until the end of class so she'll still participate for most of the lesson. Some days she likes jumping in while sitting on the edge and other days when I put her up there she tells me, "I'm done" the whole time and doesn't want to jump in. She will do all the things we've learned in class, but it has to be on her terms. We almost never do what the rest of the class is doing because while they're doing it Shasta doesn't want to. When they're blowing bubbles she wants to kick. When they're floating on their backs she wants to blow bubbles. I figure as long as she's doing things we've learned in class then it doesn't really matter that we're doing our own thing. She's getting the practice either way.

You can see it a little bit in the picture. Day 5 of swim lessons we were getting dressed in the locker room after her shower and because she was still damp her pants weren't pulling up very easily. Her feet picked up off the floor and she face planted it onto the tile and split her cheek open. She cried for a few seconds and then was over it, but I still felt bad since it was technically my fault.

Loving it!

And hating it! We sing little songs like "Ring Around the Rosies" and at the end we're supposed to dunk them. She picked up on that real fast and freaks out when I start singing it to her!

Her most favorite thing is to hang onto the side of the pool and scoot along the wall. One day we went all the way from the 3ft deep end to the 11ft deep end. Then of course when we reached the far end she was tired and I had to swim back with her. That was exhausting to say the least!

Scooting on the wall.

Jumping in. Silly me, I should have put her on the other side of the net.

Swimming for Pooh!

Catching Pooh! (Nick tried to get a picture of her throwing Pooh, but someone walked in front of him right as she threw it).

She's in no way ready to swim on her own, but I've learned some good tools to help her learn how to swim! And I'm sure we'll do lessons again next year. And thanks Nick for coming to a lesson and taking fun pictuers!

***Revision starts here***

So it turns out I jumped the gun and should have waited for swim lessons to finish before blogging about it. Who would have thought those last three days would have things worth remembering?! Wednesday was a horrible day. I was grumpy and Shasta didn't want to participate at all. She fought me on everything which was only adding to my grumpiness. I couldn't even get her to sit on the side of the pool to jump in. She would stiffen her body and grip my arms until I had to pull her back down into the water.

Then Thursday it was like something clicked in her brain and she realized swimming is fun! It was probably our most successful day. She used my arm like a pool noodle (I held my arm straight out and she hooked on under her armpits) and swam all over. She even wanted to jump in over and over again. And this time she wanted to jump in while standing up instead of just sitting on her bum. She had to hold my hands, but she would leap off the side on her own. Before when she would stand on her feet to jump in she would stand up, then sit back down and push off.

But the last day is really the day worth mentioning. We started out with jumping in over and over because once again she loved it. Then our swim teacher asked if any of the kids wanted to jump off the diving board. I asked Shasta if she wanted to and at first she told me no. Then as we watched the bigger kids from another class do it I asked her again and she said yes! We put her in a life jacket and waited our turn in line. I walked on the diving board with her and when we got to the edge she wouldn't jump on her own so I handed her down to our teacher.

Then I got off the diving board and jumped in to get her. Once I was in the water with her I asked her if she wanted to do it again and she said yes!!! So we climbed back out and stood in line. This time when it was her turn I asked the lifeguard to help her and I jumped in the water to catch her. (I was straddling a pool noodle so I wouldn't sink once I had her)! Again she wouldn't actually jump off on her own so the lifeguard held her hands and dropped her in. And as soon as she hit the water she said she wanted to go again!!! So one more time she climbed out and got in line. This time I just stayed in the water which was a bad idea. She doesn't quite understand the whole standing in line thing so her turn was passed like 5 times over. The lifeguard asked me if she could just jump in from the side since it was time to go in a few minutes so we did that and she practically had a tantrum because she wanted to go off the diving board. I asked the lifeguard if it would be okay for her to go one more time and she said yes. This time the lifeguard helped her and made sure she got a turn rather than just letting all the other kids pass her by. She jumped off the diving board a third time (with help) and didn't have a chance to ask to go again because it was time to get out.

I was SO proud of her! She definitely didn't get her bravery genes from her mommy! I didn't think she would do it since she had to hold my hands to jump off the side. And even though she had help and didn't actually jump herself, she still asked to go again. I think I was more excited about her accomplishment than she was. She's pretty much amazing!