8.28.2012

just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

This summer Arlo had swimming lessons for the first time. It was an interesting 4 weeks to say the least. We enrolled him in two 2 week sessions that met M-F for 30 minutes each day. On his very first day of lessons he was very excited and had a hard time waiting until it was his turn to get into the water. When the teacher called his name, he had no problems getting right into the water on his own, no fear at all. He swam with the teacher for his first time and smiled and was excited. But, I think he was a little too excited and not scared, he stepped off or possibly fell of the step and his head dipped into the water unexpectedly and he swallowed water and it really freaked him out. The rest of the lesson he cried. The next day I had a hard time even getting him to put his feet in the water. But, by the 3rd day he was doing fine again and loved his lessons. 
Then came session 2 and a new teacher. For some reason the transition of a new teacher made him revert to that first day of being scared. It was so odd to me, but he just didn't click as well with the new teacher or something. It could have been because his first teacher was still in the pool, but with a different class? Who even knows! The entire second session he struggled with liking it. He was scared to do certain things and would just get out of the pool at whine if he didn't want to do something. But, he did have some good days where he did everything that was asked of him. Luckily the day I brought my camera, he was pretty cooperative and happy.






We are going to keep him going in swimming lessons in the fall. Because of his struggles, I feel like waiting until next summer will be too long for him and I want to keep the momentum going. But we are giving it a little bit of a break, he will start again mid-October. Although, since he hasn't had lessons for several days now, he has been asking to go swimming! So, that is a good sign, right? He definitely likes certain things about being in the water, but from that first fall there is a nervousness about it for him. Hopefully he will get over that soon, because he does love playing with water and taking baths!

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