Wednesday, April 30, 2014

More on my Baby's Swimming

So you all remember the post that I wrote here about enrolling my baby into a new swimming class. He was put in Little 1 which is the basic level that they start for 3 -5 yr olds. Now it so happened that he was the only 1 guy in his class and it was more like a private session with full 30 mins dedicated to my baby. He was happy to get into water but even after 2 sessions refused to put his face in the water.

In 1 session the instructor spend 25 mins asking him to put his face in and he kept saying 'No', the instructor then asked his to do some practise at home, in the tub. I did not insist but R himself started practicing in the water. Since we joined late it was time for his assessment and they asked us to enroll him in Level 1 again as he was not comfortable putting his face inside. The next class onwards somehow he himself started puttign his face in the water without any coaxing from the instructor and from then on the classes went smoothly. Finally the last day of the session the instructor asked us to enroll in Level 2 for the next session as he was comfortable with water.

For the spring session we enrolled him in the Level 2. He was still interested to get into the water and wa always first in trying out things but he was still not comfortable swimming alone, also he would put his face int he water and then quickly come on top to see if he has reached the end. I asked G to take him swimming in our apt complex a couple of times for him to get comfortable but he was too busy. Finally it was assessement week and sadly baby came down with Strep and missed the Monday class, however we went on Wednesday and they were doing the assessments of other kids, so I asked to do his too. They are 4 little boys in their class and it was very clear to see 2 of them doing well and 2 including my baby who were not comfortable doing alone or back swimming. She recommended Level 2 again and asked me to get him assessed in his Monday batch as that was his normal swimming class.

These swimming class really cost a lot of money and repeating same level is somethign we are not very keen on so I decided to get him some practise in out apt swimming pool as the only thing missing was his confidence. Thu evening we went for practise. I could clearly see him being scared to let go off me, I pateintly asked him to swim 5 feet and put his face in the water the whole time and other techniques that are taught in the swim lessons. Fri again we went to the pool and this time he did manage to swim 10 seconds alone. Sat, I send him with his dad for some practise.

Monday evening I just asked him to do well, it was okay if he got repeated in the same Level. I told his teacher to assess him and to my utter amazement my baby was doing everything perfectly, he swam alone, he put his face in the water all the time, back floated, flipped perfectly. At the end of the class i was told he was ready to go to Level 3.
Yippee, my practise did pay off :)

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