Tuesday, January 14, 2014

day fourteen, learning to swim. { project 365 }

Today was Olive's first in a series of 10 swimming lessons.  The class has a capacity for four students but only has two.  It's for 3-4 year olds but because Olive will turn 3 during the class she was able to sign up.  I believe her classmate is 4.

Today was snowy so Tyler had to go into work early, with the car.  I was a little nervous that he wouldn't be able to get it back to us in time to get to the pool at a relaxed pace, but it worked out alright.  The roads were super slow with all of the fresh snow but we had about 15 minutes to get dressed.  Olive wasted about 10 of those minutes talking to people in the locker room.  I suppose we need to discuss locker room etiquette.

Leading up to today she was wavering between being excited and saying she didn't want to go.  As we were getting into the car today she was at the not wanting to go end of the pendulum.. but I think this was because she had been shoveling snow with Tyler moments before and was wanting to continue that.

So we made our way to the pool.  June woke up as we pulled into the parking lot, of course.  And, of course, the stayed awake the entire time we were there and mostly wanted to eat or be held.

The girls started out in the big pool, sitting on the edge.  The 4 year old was asked if she wanted to try using a flotation device and get into the water but she declined as Olive was repeatedly telling the teacher that she wanted to try.  The other mom said something to her daughter about "look how brave she's being.. and she's younger than you" which made me feel bad for the little girl.  The teacher took Olive into the pool and I could see Olive's feet wrap around her leg under the water as she said "I don't want to" about five times.

At this point I went to get June's carseat because it was too hot in the pool area to be holding him the entire time.  Next time I'll dress differently.  When I came back from the locker room the kids were heading to the the small wading pool.  By the wading pool I met another mom, who was there with her daughter waiting for the next lesson to start.  She's a mom of 8 and homeschools - the other mom and I had a good time chatting with her.


(I asked the other two moms if I could take a photo)

In the wading pool the girls practiced blowing bubbles, kicking their legs when on their backs, and pouring water over their heads as well as on the teacher's head.  Olive needs to work on listening to her teacher - she tried to leave the pool once and often was more interested in looking at some of the pool toys than watching the other student when she was asked to.  So we'll talk about that a few times before next week.

When the lesson was over Olive was shivering but not ready to leave.  She stayed in the pool for another half an hour by herself.  She was pretending to swim, blowing bubbles, asking me questions, and getting out to talk to the lifeguards every few minutes.  She was quite disappointed when it was time to leave but I assured her we would enjoy some hot cocoa and a few iPad games when we got home.



For her first lesson she did a really great job.  I'm glad she wasn't excited about leaving.  For next week I'll talk to her more about the teacher's expectations of her, we'll try to find a rash guard so she isn't quite so cold, and I'll bring a hair dryer and a larger towel.

No comments:

Post a Comment