Swimming solo

We had a bit of success this week at swimming lessons! Both kids have struggled at times this session and have been completely unpredictable as to how their lessons are going to go each week. For both kids to have a good lesson in the same week was almost worth a trip to Chuck E Cheese!

The Dandelion is in the Parent & Pike class for the first time. It isn't too different from "the baby class", except the kids are all at least 2 and are closer to gaining some independence in the water (in preparation for solo lessons at age 3). As he has in the past the Dandelion dislikes certain parts of the lesson (singing songs in a circle, for one), and does OK with other parts most of the time (playing with rubber duckies). In this class he has started wearing "bubbles", as that is what the Y uses to teach in their preschool classes. For the first time this week he swam by himself (in his floaty)! He swam by himself across two lanes of the pool, which is no small feat for his size! He was so proud of himself and he just wanted to keep swimming! I couldn't have been happier :)

Swimming by himself!

The Tumbleweed also had a great class this week. She is in the Eel class for the first time (the second independent level), after spending more than a year struggling with putting her face in the water and jumping in off the side and getting her head wet in the first level. She still doesn't particularly like having to do what the class is doing (especially swimming on her back) and would prefer just to play on her own in the water. She has been completely hot & cold this session, some weeks swimming great, some weeks screaming, crying and refusing to do things. Poor Miss Bethany! Well, she finished this session on a high note swimming with no bubbles for the entire class, jumping off the blocks with no help and swimming to the side, attempting to swim to the bottom of the shallow end and retrieve a dive toy, and most importantly NOT CRYING!

Ready to jump, looking quite comfortable!

Typically, I only have the kids take lessons in the warmer weather - late spring and early fall, and we have skipped the summer for the past two years due to scheduling. But this fall the Tumbleweed has asked to continue, so we are going to try one more session and see if we can build on today's success. However the Dandelion and I will be hanging up our suits until the snow comes & goes :)