Swim Lessons

After saying for a couple of summers now that I was going to get Caleb enrolled in swim lesson I finally took action and actually got him signed up this year!  There is a lady that lives very close to us that has come highly recommended by friends that offers swim lessons at her house, the only problem is that it is Monday-Thursday for two weeks and the hours she offeres classes are always the same hours that I work.  This year I decided to contact her to see if by chance she had any later classes and to my surprise she had just opened up a 6:00pm class in the first session that began the first part of June.  Yea, sign us up!

I'm so glad that we were able to get Caleb enrolled.  He had a great time and I'll admit David and I were a little sad when the lessons were over as we really enjoyed getting to watch him experience something new.

The first week he was in a class with 2 other boys his age.  I think this is the only time that you actually saw them sitting patiently waiting for instructions.  From here on out Caleb was busy trying to "swim" on his own, see if he could dive down and touch the bottom of the pool, or see how long he could hold his breath under water.  I was a little afraid how he would react since we really haven't been around the pool much the past two summers but he made us really proud on how he didn't panic and tried everything the teacher asked him to.

Here they are heading across the pool for the first time just getting acclimated to their surroundings.

 Caleb really liked his teachers and I think that played a HUGE role on him feeling comfortable to try everything.  He practiced floating on his back, floating on his stomach, finning, treading water, gliding and doing a basic swim stroke.

 The second week the other two boys in his class were unable to attend so Caleb got to do part of his class with the kids in the session in front of him and part of it on his own.  I'm glad he got some 1:1 time because during this part of the session he was able to go to the deep end which is where he seemed to do a lot better.  I was very impressed on how he wasn't afraid to go to the deep end of the pool with his teacher and couldn't believe how one night she threw a diving stick in, grabbed Caleb and down the two of them went to retrieve it.  I just knew he would come up coughing water and in a panic but instead he came up laughing and wanted to do it again.

At the end of class each night, as a treat, they were able to jump off the diving board. The first couple of nights he just jumped off the side of the pool but after that he was all about the diving board and once again had no fear jumping right in.

 So proud of this little guy and how well he did for his first swim lessons.  He is no little fish yet but I know with some practice he will be before we know it.  We will definitely be signing up for classes again next summer and can't wait to see how much progress he makes from this summer.