All of that means that once again, swimming season has come upon us. This means it is, once again, time to get the kids into swim lessons. I wasn't worried about Owen. I was pretty sure he was going to pick up right where he left off from last season. I was right in this prediction.
We can't seem to keep Owen out of the water. I swear that kid has a set of gills that he grows during the summer. He constantly is asking to go swimming. We happily oblige him as much as we can.
Caroline on the other hand, well. She's a totally different story. At the end of last summer, we couldn't get her to put her head under water no matter what we bribed her with. It didn't seem to matter. Candy, money, ice cream, chocolate, nothing would do the trick. I worried about her and whether or not she would even want to go swimming. I figured she would scream and cry hysterically during her swim lessons. I was right in this prediction.
I had been kicking around the idea of enrolling Owen into private swim lessons. But, I didn't want to fork out this dough if we were going to have to do "catch-up" from last year. I decided to start with the first session of lessons through the city. Of course, and as per the usual lately, I was late in signing the kids up for lessons through the city. But, as luck would have it, there was an opening for each kid at the same time at a pool that was about 20 minutes away. It turned out to be more than a blessing. Owen was enrolled into the "shrimps" class (6:1 ratio). Caroline was enrolled in the "tadpoles" class (3:1 ratio). Owen was one of 2 kids in his class. Caroline was the only one in her class - which was really the best thing ever!
Owen frolicked and played and did great in his class. Caroline, she cried, screamed, howled, thrashed about, and more each day for the first week of her lessons. But, by the second week she was showing major improvements. Caroline's teacher was unbelievably fabulous. I told her that it was probably a good thing that she only had Caroline because her behavior was enough for the three kids that were suppose to be in her class. She kind of laughed but I could tell she totally agreed with me. However, my the end of the second week of lessons, she had Caroline not crying at all and jumping INTO the pool. This was the girl who was terrified to get her face wet and REFUSED to put her head under water. That teacher was truly a lifesaver.
I wanted to continue to build on this success so I enrolled the kids into the second session of swim lessons through the city. This time, Howie will get to participate in a parent-tot class. Adam gets to take him to that one! Owen has advanced to the "otter" class. Caroline needs to repeat the tadpoles class one more time and then she will be able to move on to the "shrimps" class. Either way, we are so incredibly proud of the kids and the advances and drastic improvements they have made in such a short amount of time with their swimming skills. After a short 2 week break, we will have the kids in private swim lessons (yep, I bit the bullet, forked over the money, and put them both in for 3 weeks). The will get plenty of swimming instruction this year and hopefully there won't be too many more years of lessons.
Caroline's pictures of swimming!
Owen's swimming pictures (I couldn't get a lot of Owen because he was always under the water. In one picture you can only see his feet!):
No comments:
Post a Comment