I was at swim lessons with the big boys a couple weeks ago and happened to notice a very small girl taking lessons with another teacher. She looked to be about three or so. She was diving down to get things off the bottom and swimming all over the place.
"How old is she?" I asked her teacher.
"She just turned three, " she replied. "But I've had her since she was one... she's ALWAYS been fearless though!"
Later that week, I texted the boys' teacher. "When can Jonathan start lessons with you?"
Generally with the little ones, they do a mommy and me class or a private lesson with mommy in the water to help out, so I wasn't optimistic that she would take him without me and I have ZERO desire to get in the pool right now and deal with getting Jonathan and myself dressed and dried off enough to go back out into the cold winter air.
She replied that we could try it and see how it went. The next week, Ben couldn't take his lesson because basketball conflicted (the time moves around every week), so I asked if we could sub in Jonathan to swim with Simon. She was okay with that, so off we went.
Now, in stark contrast to Ben at this age, who freaked his freak out upon even ENTERING a building with an indoor pool, Jonathan was PSYCHED. "Do you want to swim today?" "YES!!!" was his enthusiastic reply. He waited patiently (kinda) for his turn.
When it was his turn, he didn't even look back. He went right with Miss Tara. She looked over and asked, "Is he going to get upset about going under water?"
"Uh... no." I answered, laughing... thinking back to summertime and all the "More! More!" when he would jump in and go under.
She promptly dunked him and up he popped, giggling.
Then she put him on the little step in the shallow and backed up so he could jump and "swim" to her. I'm pretty sure she didn't even get to three before he lunged forward and went under... she pulled him up and he giggled some more.
"I think this will work!" she yelled from across the pool.
I did have to sit on the side and hold him while he sat on the wall when it was Simon's turn. (she alternates the kids' turns during their lesson. But I'll certainly take getting my jeans a little wet over getting completely in!)
I'm hoping to have a tiny swimmer by June. Do'able? We'll see. LOL!
6 comments:
Yeah. He kicks naturally... I thinks that's the advantage to starting them so little... they still seem to have some natural instincts about it all. The older boys did NOT do that when they started... and Simon still forgets to keep kicking!
Oh, and no... not members yet. No point until they are all three in school, I'm thinking. Maybe next fall. :)
So I'm thinking early February for starting both big and little A. Would that be do-able?? Pool season will be here before I know it and it's got me terrified!
Simon and A can take together... but probably not Alek. She can't handle more than one toddler one in the pool at a time. If you wanted to see if she could do A and A together at a different time, that might work. I'll ask what she has? Her avaiability has gottenkind of limited...she has cut back a lot. But there are tons of other teachers... I can ask about them too?
p.s. pool season can't come soon enough. DONE with winter already and it's technically not even here yet. I want the warm summer sunshine... shorts... tees.... flip flops... sigh...
Yeah! I love little swimmers!
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