Swimming lessons

Emily finished her first round of swimming lessons in the Schuldt Natatorium at The W in Waverly.  After the crazy weather the first week, I'm sure glad they are held indoors!  Each lesson was for 30 min. on Monday-Thursday for the last two weeks.  There were six kids in her Preschool I class.  Lincoln & I observed the lessons from the windows upstairs.  Here's how it all went down:

Day 1: Emily seemed to have fun but had issues about getting her hair wet.  She told her teacher, Abby, that her hair gets nasty.  I think she said a lot of other things, too, because it seemed like her mouth never stopped moving.

Day 2:  Emily was a little more okay with getting her hair wet with a ponytail in.  Afterward she informed me, "I'm sorry but I don't have time to go to swimming lessons tomorrow.  I have a billion things to do."  I think she was mostly referring to getting ready for a big birthday party she was hosting for her doll, Felicia, and the rest of her imaginary friends.

Day 3:  Emily kicked and thrashed around when the teacher tried to hold her floating on her tummy (head up).  She refused to follow most instructions after that and had to be taken out by another lifeguard to supposedly get a drink of water.  Emily told her teacher that she would blow bubbles in the water tomorrow.

Day 4:  Emily was nearly 100% compliant.  She blew bubbles in the water just like she said she would.  She also moved her head side to side to practice putting her ears in the water and laid mostly still while being held in a back float position.  She still didn't put her face in the water for a front float, but didn't resist being held in position.  She said she "needed another lesson to put her face in the water.  Maybe in July."

Day 5:  The teacher tried to teach the kids the general arm movements for the crawl stroke (big arm circles).  Emily wouldn't do it and later told me she could only give high fives.

Day 6:  Emily got hit in the face with a diving ring at the beginning of the lesson and that kind of ruined things for the rest of the time.  Another instructor, Katie, eventually came and tried to work with her one-on-one, but she didn't want to do much.

Day 7:  The day started out promising but quickly deteriorated for unknown reasons.  Emily ended up spending one-on-one time with Katie for most of the lesson with only minimal cooperation.  At the end of the lesson the other kids strapped on life vests to practice jumping into the deep water.  Some were definitely more reluctant than others.  Emily, however, sat against the wall 10 feet away from the edge of the pool with her pouty, scowly face that said, "I am NOT going to do it."  Sigh...

Day 7.5: In the afternoon I took the kids to the public pool, which Emily had been excited about.  She, however, spent at least half of the time wrapped in a towel whining about wanting to go home.  Even though the other little girl from her swimming class was also at the pool, Emily didn't want to play.  It's like she has digressed way beyond where she ever was even last year.  She did go in the big pool all decked out in flotation devices for about 5 minutes before it was rest period and everyone had to get out.  I know I should try and take her to the pool more often to help her get more comfortable in the water, but it's pretty much impossible to work with her on anything while trying to keep track of Lincoln, too.

Day 8:  Today I resorted to bribery.  I wish I would have done it earlier.  I picked up some new pool toys at Wal-mart and told Emily she could have a surprise if she listened to her teachers and cooperated with everything they asked her to do.  She was perfect.  However, it was too late because all the skills evaluations were already done and today was just a fun day.  They played with the diving rings, jumped in the water with life vests and got to go down the big slide.  Emily did get a new toy, but not the one she wanted most.  That will have to be saved for another day.

Outcome:  Not surprising, Emily did NOT pass her swimming class.  I really think it was more out of stubbornness than fear that she did not perform the required skills.  The teacher recommended that we try private lessons since Emily seemed to respond better to one-on-one attention.  We'll probably have to end up doing that--at least this time.  Afterward I think Emily began to grasp the concept of not passing.  Before that she really didn't understand, so she didn't care.

I really hope this is not a problem that continues in the future.  I vividly remember swimming lessons growing up and honestly pretty much hated them.  Even though I made it up to life guard training and can do all the basic skills, I still don't enjoy putting my face in the water and definitely don't open my eyes.  Austin was a life guard in high school as well as Uncle Tyler.  My mom was also a life guard.  So at least we have some tradition going for us!  This has been a big learning experience for both Emily & I, and now we know what to work on going forward.