Fail.
I was a lifeguard for ten years, a swim instructor for seven,
and did competitive year round swim team until I graduated high school. I am a
swimmer. I love the water. I am comfortable in it. I have confidence with my ability;
I jumped of a family member’s boat and swam in the middle of the Caribbean to
get the best view of the fish and I didn’t have a fear in the world… well other
than the barracuda.
I have taught tons of kids to get over their fear of the
water and taught them the basics of how to swim and float to the technique of the
four strokes.
As a lifeguard I would watch four year olds afraid to put
the face in the water to two year olds who could jump of the diving board and swim.
I thought: my children would be swimming at two and I would
never pay for a swim lesson because I was the best teacher there was. As a
lifeguard I had also watched a number of horrible swim lessons with teachers
who had not a clue what they were talking about.
I now have two, two year olds. They surely do not know how
to swim or even know about the pool. I have almost put them in swim lesson
several times. We have a place here called Aqua Tots that starts at 6 months!
They are known for being able to teach young children so much! They are
parent/child classes. Before the new babies came along Mike and I planned to
enroll them and never did because of schedule conflicts.
Then Max and Eli were born and we didn’t even join our
neighborhood pool because it seemed like such a waste of money because I didn’t
think we would get to go often.
A student from my 1st of teaching, who is now
graduated from college, contacted me on facebook about doing swim lessons for P
and N. She has been teaching swims for 8 years with her mom that has been doing
it for over 30 years. 30 years of teaching swim lessons you must know what you
are doing! The price was the cheapest I have seen and the time was prefect and
I have been searching for some morning outings/ activities for the kids to do.
So I thought why not?
Their first lesson was this morning at 9am. The pool is
about 20 minutes from my house. So I loaded the van up with all four kids and
got there early. We got to the pool at 8:40. I knew it would take me some time
to get everyone out of the car and inside… but I didn’t need 20 minutes to do
so I popped in an elmo dvd and the kids watched before I started unloading. I
got everyone out and situation and we headed in just a few minutes before 9am
(8:57). There was a swim lesson before ours and our actual lesson didn’t start
until maybe 5 after nine. Eight minutes for my kids to check out the scene and
start to try to run all over the place. Ah.
Swim lessons start and they both had stranger danger…. clinging
to my legs and trying to go up my skirt… Meanwhile I have a double stroller
with two babies in it as well.
The swim lesson took place on the stairs the other side of
the pool had identical stairs so I walked over there with P and N and got their
legs in and got them to kick their feet. Shortly I was able to get them to join
the rest of class and sit on the stairs but that was about it and even that
came with a lot of crying and running away and me putting them back on the
stairs.
The whole time I was questioning what I should be doing. Do
I walk away completely? Do I make them stay? Do I let them stay out? Do I let
them quit? Do I call it quits and take them home? Are they too young for this? Did I start them too late? Am I making excuses for them?
I just tried to keep encouraging them, but they still weren’t
really having it.
I saw four problems with today.
1. I need to take my kids to the pool and get them
comfortable swimming in the water with me.
2. They had major stranger danger.
3. They do not understand bribing the teacher kept saying I’ll
give you a cookie if. Well I don’t really do that at home. My kids don’t care about
a cookie until you are actually handing them one.
4. The lesson is too long for them. It is a 1
hour lesson.
I decided to work on problem 1 today. So I called my mom and
said, “mom take us to the pool.” This was a success. But Noah is crazy he went
from being scared of the water to fearless. He was jumping off the steps but
screaming at me for helping him, holding his hand, etc. I let him go so he
could understand you need mommy. Didn’t seem to click…
The swim teacher wouldn’t take my money today. She told me I
could bring them back tomorrow if I wanted and we could see how they do and go
from there.
Now I am wondering if I should take them back or not!
Noah "getting" the rings. See what I mean the kid was not getting in!
P getting the rings. She at least stood on the once step and got the rings from the second step the first time (did get a picture). But after seeing Noah get them like this that was the only way she would do them after that.
These two just along for the ride!
