Swim Lessons

Every summer we have done swimming lessons at the community pool. I have always done swim lessons there because they have mommy and me classes (so I can be in the water, too), Aliyah and Spencer can have their lesson at the same time, there are four 2-week sessions, and they are really inexpensive. The negative side is that there are lots of kids in each class and so they learn at a VERY slow pace, and the public pool is always a crazy place.

There is a lady in our ward who teaches swim lessons. I decided that I really wanted Aliyah and Spencer to learn to swim and I didn't feel like dealing with the kids at the public pool so we went for the private lessons. Spencer was in a class with two other 2 year olds, and Aliyah in a class of 3 other little kids. Spencer cried the first day or two in the lessons. It was a bit sad as he would grab onto the pool fence bars from the inside, crying for me to come get him. He quickly got over his hesitancy and then he began to love lessons.

Everyday he would talk about swimming. "Teacher help me swim" and "swim pool". He would act out all sorts of things he would do, like diving down for rings and swimming across the water. His little actions are soooo adorable. (Since a lot of the time we can't understand what he is saying, he has resorted a lot to acting out what he is trying to say.)

Spencer learned how to "monkey"--pulling himself around the edge of the pool by his arms, how to hold his breath to put his head under the water, how to float on his back, and the beginnings of swimming.

Aliyah, of course, was not nervous at all. In fact, the teacher had to often tell her to just sit and wait and not try to swim around all on her own. She greatly improved her swimming skills--she can now swim the length of the pool by turning over to float on her back every time she needs a breath. She also learned the backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.