Swim Lessons Mommy-Style

After paying for group swim lessons at the rec center for two years in a row for Caleb, I decided to try teaching them myself this year. Caleb learned how to "swim" (dog-paddle) just before his fourth birthday, but for the past year-and-a-half of being in the water without any flotation help, he still just dog-paddled around the pool with his face out of the water. We've offered him various rewards if he would swim with his face in the water and his body horizontal, but he wasn't willing to go for that until a few weeks ago.

When we re-joined the rec center, I determined to take the boys swimming twice a week for four weeks in a row (which is the equivalent of the eight swim lessons I have paid for in the past) and give them swim lessons myself. I've sat through enough swim lessons to have a good idea of how it works, and I was ready to give it a try. I made my appointments to leave Lydia in the childcare room, packed up a (huge) bag with all of our swim stuff and changes of clothes, and set out.

It went well from the start: I took turns taking each boy out on little skill-specific drills, just like I had seen the swim instructor do. In the beginning, Ethan couldn't keep himself up in the water at all. Just one week before I started lessons, he had jumped in a friend's pool before I got his swim vest on and I had to, once again, fish him out of the water. During our lessons, he made tremendous progress right from the start. By the third lesson, he could swim about six feet from the side of the pool to me. Since he does not share Caleb's aversion for putting his face in, he was swimming horizontal, head underwater from the beginning. I think seeing Ethan do so well that third lesson lit a fire under Caleb. The next time, he, too, put his face in the water and swam horizontally like his younger brother. Since he is older, stronger & more coordinated, he was quickly able to swim quite far.

The next step for both of them was learning how to come up for air and then go back under and continue swimming. They both wanted to stop once their first breath was gone. We tackled that in the fifth and sixth lessons, and soon they were both popping up for air and going back under. By now, I was able to set up short races to motivate them to better-coordinate their arm and leg movements for more efficient speed. I also played a game with them where I threw plastic rings in the water and they had to retrieve them before they floated to the bottom. This got them doing a little swimming down and up.

The latest step forward was this last time we went (this time with Daddy) and that is jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side unassisted. They both did this multiple times at the pool this past weekend. I got some good video of it, but I have no idea how to upload video to a blog post, so it'll just have to stay on my iPhone :) I can't believe how much they've learned this past month, and I am really proud of my little swimmers!