Swim Lesson

I am not sure why my paragraphs are not spaced correctly...must be a blogger problem.

Arden is in her second week of swim lessons. I knew she was ready to learn and she didn't want to listen to us as we tried to teach her so I signed her up for the July sessions of swim lessons.

She has made tons of improvements over the week. Let me give you a quick recap.

Monday: Lesson #1. Grab tightly to the instructor and scream so much that you get water in your mouth as you go under water. Whine the entire time. Get out and say "that was fun".

Tuesday: Lesson #2. Scream before you even get in the water and have to be "dropped in" by your mother in order to get into the pool. Cling to the instructor again. At the end of the lesson get out and say "that was it? I want to do more." Then proceed to ask the swim instructor to bring a Dora kick board because she would swim better if the kick board had Dora on it.

OK...at this point I am starting to rethink my initial thought about her being ready to swim. I wondered was I pushing her to early...she's only 2 but I thought we would see the week through.

So on Wednesday during the day Arden and I were talking and I asked her if she would like for me to drop her off at swim school like I do for church or stay close by with the other mothers? She told me that she wanted to be dropped off like at church.

Swim lesson started on Wednesday and I again had to drop her into the pool to her teacher Kate. I then took Thomas and we headed to the other end of the pool. Arden did great. She started trying things without whining and started to try on her own initiative.

By Thursday she was so excited to get in the pool for her lesson she jumped in by herself and on Friday she was able to float on her own, push off the wall and go underwater while blowing bubbles.

She is so proud of herself. This weekend she swam with Dave or I helping her without her ring. She loves to play ring around the rosies and come up out of the water like Ariel on the Little Mermaid. She is kicking and starting to doggie paddle. She jumps in without holding onto your hands.

In the baby pool she is swimming. She lays on her stomach, puts her face in and kicks. She can do it. The best part is when she jumps up and yells "I did it! I did it!"

I am looking forward to watching her learn more this week and see her confidence grow.

Here are the only two pictures I have captured because I am on the other side of the pool. One of the pictures is of Arden learning to float on her back.