Swim Lessons!

This week, Katie Anne started swim lessons in the evenings at our local park.  Katie Anne loves the water and has no fear, and she's a great swimmer with her floaties on ... she'll swim around in the deep end of Doc and VJ's pool with Mommy and Daddy.  So, we thought she could really benefit from some swim lessons this summer - and she thought they sounded like a lot of fun! 

Our original idea was to do private lessons, but by the time I got in touch with the swim teacher at the Country Club in May, there were only three weeks of instruction time left - one during Ballet Dance Camp, one during our vacation, and one at the end of July ... and doing it that late in the summer seemed like a waste of money.  So, we signed Katie Anne up for the preschool group class through the Rec Department.  It was a great deal for eight 50-minute lessons, and it seemed like a good idea since we didn't know how she'd do.  We were all very disappointed when her lessons had to be rescheduled due to her arm injury earlier in the summer - Katie Anne cried and cried when she thought she wasn't going to get to go to swim lessons.  Luckily, the Rec Dept. was very nice, and Daddy was able to reschedule them.  So, we were all looking forward to classes starting this week!

On Monday, she went to her first lesson and had a great time.  She didn't do all the activities exactly the way the lifeguards asked her to, but she did try everything ... she's still very hesitant about putting her head underwater.  However, Katie Anne loves to float on her back, kick, tread water, and she did a great job practicing moving her arms.  A lot of the kids in her group cried the whole time, but Katie Anne was smiling and happy - so we were very pleased with her progress so far!  

Here are some pictures from Monday night...

Listening to instructions from one of her teachers:

Trying to put her head underwater ... but really just going in to her shoulders:

Making sure that Mommy and Daddy are still there:

Time for real swimming!  Practicing floating on her back:

Kicking:

Treading water:

(Can you tell which lifeguard is her favorite?)

To reward everyone who'd been a good sport for trying, the lifeguards took the kids to the kiddie pool to play for the last few minutes of class.  Katie Anne had fun in the kiddie pool, and she was trying out some of her new skills - she was trying to swim and put her head underwater there.

 

On Tuesday night, I took KA to swim by myself and expected more of the same good times... eh, not so much.  This time, she was one of the criers and didn't want to do anything at all.  She barely got wet!  Also, she refuses to be held by or swim with the male lifeguards (um... "What?!?").  She says they have greasy sunscreen on their chests and are not wearing shirts.  I told her that they are her teachers just as much as the girls are (and there are actually more guys - 4 guys and 2 girls work with the preschool class), that she won't get as many chances to swim if she won't swim with the boys, and that she has to be nice to the boy teachers, too.  On Monday night, she didn't swim with any male lifeguards, but she was nice about it.  On Tuesday night ... she wasn't.  I can handle the unwillingness to participate a lot more than I can a poor attitude toward a teacher - even if the teacher is an 18-year-old lifeguard, he's still a teacher and she should be respectful.  So, Mean Mommy had to step in and take her home early for some redirection.  She's got a brand-new attitude about swim lessons now.  Hopefully, tonight will be much better!