Garytt was pretty excited to start class.
The teacher, Miss Clare, took attendance the first day. Then she just remembered everyone's name after that. I am terrible with names, so I was pretty impressed with how quickly all the teachers seemed to pick up the names. Of course, with 3-5 year olds, you have to repeat their names about a million times per class...I'm sure that helps.
The class was set up to go back and forth between group activities and individual skills.
Group activities usually involved being in a circle and then putting their faces in the water at some point.
During the indivual skils, the rest of the class was required to sit still with no splashing. Ok, so let me just say that is very difficult for a 3 year old, especially a 3 year old boy (the girls in the class did seem to handle that requirement a little better). Yeah, Miss Clare spent a lot of time asking Garytt not to splash. It was one of those times as a parent, you don't know when to step in to "remind" him to use his listening ears or just let it go because you think the requirement to sit perfectly still in a pool of water while you wait for 5 other classmates to take their individual turn is a bit much for that age. But, while the requirement maybe wasn't all the reasonable, Garytt also pushed the limits. *Sigh* I just wish she would have given them tasks while waiting, like practice scooping the water with your hands or practice your flutter kicks...anything to keep them busy because otherwise they are left to their own devices like Garytt putting his face in and out of the water to watch the water drip off.
Ok, off my soap box. Garytt did really well with his skills on the front but he doesn't relax on his back. I saw progression over the two weeks in class where he got somewhat more comfortable but still is very tense on his back.
After a few days of class, they got to move around the pool a little more. She had them swim with assistance over to the side wall. Then they got to practice jumping into the pool. As you can see, while the class sits quietly, Garytt is busy splashing, splashing. Unfortunately, the one time I got a picture of him jumping, it is a little blurry.
During week two, they got to move even further around the pool by getting into a noddle train. Let me tell you, Garytt loved the noodle train and was one of the only kids to actually make train noises when she asked them to.
They would take their noodle train to a little cove in the pool where they would work on more individual skills. I actually think that helped their focus a little bit because all of us parents weren't right there, which seemed to be a big distraction for the class...especially my little show off.
At the end of pretty much every class, they were allowed to play with the rings. I definitely saw improvement with Garytt during this game. The first couple of days, he would reach to the bottom and try desperately to keep his head out of the water. By the end of class, he would practically dive in head first.
Oh, and you may be wondering what Westyn did during the 45 minute swim class. I started by having him look at books but he soon realized I had snacks with me. So, he pretty much snacked for 45 minutes every day.
Here are a few videos I took throughout the two week swim lessons.
In the end, Garytt did not advance to the next level of swim lessons, which I fully expected. He did a lot of learning for his first official swim lessons! He still has to work on getting more comfortable floating on his back and a few other skills Miss Clare marked on the evaluation form. But other than the excessive splashing, I thought he did well!
We are actually starting a second session of swim lessons starting July 1. We are signed up through the city rec department this time. So, I am eager to see how the two programs compare and how he does in this new environment.
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