Swimming Lessons

We have now had 2 swimming lessons with Mason. Last night was the first night where the whole family got to go to them together (I was sick the first lesson.) Mason LOVES swimming! When we walked into the pool area Mason started jumping up and down and squealing with excitement. He started pulling on his clothes, anxious for us to take them off so he could GO GO GO! As soon as he was ready, he went right into the water with no fear. He especially loves to splash. Mason is the only boy in our group of 9 or 10 babies/toddlers ranging in age from 6 months-2 years +.

The first thing we did was put some water on different parts of our bodies. I sat with Mason on my lap and helped him put water on his arms, legs, shoulders, etc. Next we splashed around. Then, we went to the deeper water where we swam to a floaty toy. Mason was supposed to either practice moving his arms in a swimming motion or kicking his legs. He doesn’t get the arms part at all, but he is a good kicker! He got bored with this pretty quickly only because he would rather play with the toy then keep swimming to it. Then we practiced jumping into the pool from the side. Mason LOVED this. I would count to 3 and then he would jump. Most kids sat on the side and then kind of fell in, but Mason had no fear and stood up and jumped right in! Can we say Daredevil and emergency room visits are in our future? Then we practiced holding onto the side of the pool while in the water. Mason can actually hold himself up for quite awhile. To finish up, we sang songs in the water that involved motions and moved the babies with the motions. Example-Ring around the Rosey where we twirled in circles while holding the babies.

All in all it was a good experience, if only for the fact that Mason LOVED most of it. Just the fact that he loves to be in the water is reason enough for us to get him lessons. Some things that I noticed though and things you might look out for if you want to take your child swimming- 1.It is way to big of an age gap. The things that a 6 month old and a 2 year old can do are COMPLETELY different. The next swimming lesson class available starts at age 3. Just like Mason didn’t understand the swimming arm motion, the couple of 6 month old babies in our group didn’t really understand anything. And for the older kids in our group, I think they could probably do more if they had older kids to learn from. 2. Our lessons start at 7 pm. For those of you who know that Mason goes to bed at 6, this has been a bit of a problem. Unfortunately that was the only time this group was offered. So, we have started moving Mason back to a 7 pm bedtime, which is working okay so far, but I can tell he is tired in the morning when I have to wake him up. He also gets very tired during his lesson. 3. Our instructor is CREEPY. I’m sure he is a great guy-he seems to like kids and handles them pretty well. I say pretty well because the majority of the kids in our group cry when he comes close. Mason does not cry, but just stares at him. Even I find something oddly weird about him…but I couldn’t tell you what it was. All I know is if I were in charge of staffing a teacher for the parents/tots swimming class, I probably wouldn’t have chosen him.

Next week we hope to take some pictures our cute little swimmer boy for everyone to see!