Splish Splash

Jeff has really been loving his swimming lessons this spring. He's made quite a bit of progress, but a few weeks ago I thought we'd hit a lull. He still loved swimming, but was not really interested in progressing and learning more. He just wanted to play around and sink under the water. Being only 4 years old I realize the desire to just play in the water. He doesn't really feel the need to swim. It's all about fun.

Today was the last lesson for this session. Jeffrey was all excited for class today. He has had a new instructor these last two weeks. She's really good, but very strict. Makes the kids stay "behind the line" unless it's their turn. And if he jumped too early, he'd have to sit out for a jump. He wasn't as fond of her as he was the girl he'd had since February.

Today on the way into lessons we talked about how he'd have Miss Lizzy again. And she really wanted him to try some new things today. He said he'd try floating on his back (his big issue of recent lessons). And he did, I was quite proud of him.

At the end of the lesson they always do jumps. It's Jeff's favorite part of the lesson. He'll jump in the opposite direction of the instructor as far as he can. Today for his final jump the instructor had just walked the other 2 boys across the pool. She stood at the far side of the pool, made clear eye contact with Jeffrey and told him she wanted him to jump in and swim across. Of course I'd decided to leave the camera at home today thinking there wasn't going to be anything new.

Jeff made sure he understood what she wanted him to do and went for it. He jumped in, bobbed up and started swimming. He stretched himself out. Brought his arms out of the water to "scoop" and swam about 25 feet to Miss Lizzy. I was so proud of him. He went from just wanting to sit on the bottom of the pool to trying to keep himself near the top and really using his arms.

We're taking a few weeks off, and then we will get back into lessons in June. Erin's going to take some too. She got some new goggles for her birthday and it seems that might make a big difference in her willingness to get wet. We'll see.