Thursday, June 6, 2013

Swimming Like a Fishy!

We've had swimming lessons this week for James! Last year was a lonnnnng process. Poor James struggled with ear infections, upper respiratory infections, and asthma BIG TIME in the months of May and June last year and that greatly affected his swimming. Fortunately, we worked with our allergist a few months ago to get his medicines under control and, thank you, Lord!, he has been well since January! (I realize that he'll now get sick next week just because I've said this but I'm praising the months that he's been WELL...this is UNPRECEDENTED for this kid!) Anyway, we did about six weeks of swimming last year. This year, we scheduled for two weeks and I think it's going to work out quite nicely.

Our sweet teacher from last year has been battling breast cancer so James switched to the other lady in the group. I wasn't sure what to expect at all because 1) James had been asking for Mrs. V. and was adamant he wanted her to teach him and 2) a friend had a not-great experience with her a few weeks ago and I was just a little apprehensive. So far (three days in) it has been FABULOUS.

On Monday James hopped right into the pool to swim. I'd reminded him what he would be expected to do (it's survival swimming - they're more focused on life saving and drowning prevention at James' age). The teachers both practice and practice and practice and practice going in and out of a float with kids. They don't encourage breath holding and being able to swim across the pool, they're more focused on flipping and floating in case a child falls into the pool. That said, James was swimming a great distance last summer, but the recommend children flip and float to rest and catch their breath. He was okay but grew tired about halfway through and began to whimper. He's been in swimmies a little bit lately (which is a BIG no-no!) and that made him vertical. Basically, when kids wear swimmies or life jackets in the pool it gives them the idea that you swim with your feet down and your head up, which is not the case. She had to work with him on Monday to look at her feet so that he would keep his face down while he was swimming. He didn't like that and wasn't quite comfortable enough with the whole thing that it made him a little upset. By the end, though, he was happy and left happy.


Sweet boys before lessons on Monday! I forgot to take any pictures while we were there.

On Tuesday James hopped right back into the pool but quickly remembered whatever made him upset on Monday and began to cry. She reminded him that when he cries he gets water in his mouth and it makes him cough. (I've since learned that he gets water up his nose when he flips to float.) Mrs. N. pulled out some toys to sit on the side of the pool so that he could swim for those and that cheered him up. The rest of the lesson was a success! He swam farther and floated longer than on Monday.



Stegosaurus tattoo on his arm from turning in his reading log at the library Monday.








Wednesday was a great day! The little girl that goes before us is not yet two and she was crying her entire lesson. I was worried that it would make him upset, too, but I reminded him to be brave and that she was MUCH younger than him. He decided he should show her how to be brave so that's just what he did. His flip and float was great today but I did notice that he's poking his booty up in the air when he starts to swim. Not sure what that's about. He did ask to be done with about two minutes left. She made him swim to the wall a handful of times and then he got out. No whimpering, no crying! Hopefully that will continue so that he'll progress!







Today was great as well. He told Mrs. N. that he was "a little bit brave and a little bit nervous." Ha! Sweet thing. He swam great! He's swimming farther every day. They did a lot more work on his swim, float, swim. He's having a hard time remembering to float and when she helps he grabs at her hands because he panics and thinks he's sinking. Today she let him swim with toys in his hands in hopes that he wouldn't grab her quite as much. Very proud of him today!





I'm pleased with the way things have gone this week! Hoping for another week of successful lessons.

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